


i know you (i know you)

by barnabashale



Series: Changing the View [3]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, POV Alternating, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25150888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barnabashale/pseuds/barnabashale
Summary: ”Something I never told you: I like your hair better down. I don’t know why you always put it up when you’re trying to look fancy or whatever.”Jay snorted, shaking his head. This was the sort of ‘communication’ game Carlos had proposed: ‘something I never told you.’ The day after they’d decided to work on their relationship seriously, Carlos had thought it up over breakfast. “We need to catch up,” he’d said. “So I’ll tell you something I never told you, then you tell me something you never to me.”Jay thought Carlos had been living with Evie for a bit too long, since it kind of sounded like an icebreaker to him.Jay and Carlos are ready to begin their relationship, facing the reality of the work it will take. After years of pining, Jay wants to settle down and enjoy Carlos’s company. And after years of confusion, Carlos wants to feel secure in his choice to be with Jay.
Relationships: Jay/Carlos de Vil
Series: Changing the View [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768702
Comments: 23
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> _I know I want it  
>  입에 바른 소린 이제 그만할게  
> (i’m not gonna try to please you anymore)  
> 'Cause I deserve it, deserve it  
> 혹시 잠깐 내가 미워지더라도 걱정 안 할게  
> (even if you dislike me for a moment, i won’t worry)  
> 'Cause I know you, I know you_  
> title from more & more by twice
> 
> _(this is part 3 of a 3 part fic series, ‘Changing the View’, meant to be read in order)_

“Don’t leave,” Evie whined from where she was lying down on Carlos’s bed while he worked on packing the last of his belongings into a cardboard box at the foot of it. He’d already got most of his stuff from his and Jane’s place, although he’d still have to go back when it was time to clean the place up so they could get their security deposit back.

“You’ll be fine,” Carlos said. “You still have Jay for a couple weeks, and you still have me for another day.”

“Just one day!” Evie groaned dramatically, which made Carlos smile to himself as he neatly placed his books in the box. “And then you’ll be farther away than you’ve ever been—for a whole month! I’ll die, C, I’ll just die.”

“Did your mom teach you these dramatics?” Carlos teased. “A means of keeping a man?”

“Oh, shut up!” Evie threw a pillow at him, causing Dude to bark after it. Evie was then successfully distracted with petting Dude and cooing at him about how much she was going to miss him.

“You’ll come back all the time, right?” she said to Carlos once he’d closed up the box of books.

“Of course,” Carlos said.

“Even after Jay’s out there, too? You won’t forget about me?” Evie pouted, batting her eyes. Carlos snorted.

“Stop being stupid,” he said, sitting down beside her and reaching out to scratch Dude behind his ears. “I’ll miss you so much when I’m up there, I swear I'll be coming back down every night for dinner with how much I’ll miss you.”

Evie grinned, reaching out and ruffling his hair. He laughed, pulling away from her.

Jay cleared his throat from the doorway, leaning against it. “Hey, Carlos?” he said, and Carlos looked at him with a grin.

“Yeah?” he said. Jay had that look on his face, the embarrassed one he got whenever he was thinking about doing something romantic. Carlos thought he was beginning to get good at reading him.

“Okay!” Evie said, jumping up. “I’ll give you guys a moment.” She flounced out of the room, giving Jay a wink that made Carlos laugh and Jay shake his head. Dude followed Evie, likely expecting a treat from her.

Jay sat down beside Carlos, sitting close so their shoulders brushed as the mattress dipped beneath him. Carlos couldn’t help but smile at him, and he smiled in return. They’d kept their relationship slow going, exactly as Carlos had requested, and it felt like they really were in the opening stages of a real relationship this time. They talked more, even if it took more effort to speak freely in the way that had once been so easy. That felt like part of it, though, they were making something new. This thing wasn’t about reclaiming the past, but instead building a whole new Jay and Carlos.

“So,” Jay said. “I want to take you out. On a date.”

He sounded kind of nervous, and Carlos had to bite his lip to try not to laugh. He didn’t want to make fun of him, but he was just so cute like that. “A date?” Carlos said, unable to hide the teasing tone of the question.

“Yeah, a date,” Jay said, completely earnest in a way that made Carlos want to kiss him hard. “We’ve never really had like... A real first date. And you leave the day after tomorrow... So. Yeah. I want to take you out.”

“Okay,” Carlos said, feeling warm. “That sounds nice.”

Jay beamed at him, looking a bit relieved, and Carlos couldn’t hold back a laugh.

“Did you think I was gonna say no?” he asked.

“Not exactly,” Jay said, laughing as well. “You just have this effect on me.”

“Hm,” Carlos said. He stood back up and went back to packing, he didn’t realize he had so many clothes, even after he’d gotten rid of so many the week before. He’d have to tell Evie to slow down on making him stuff. Jay leaned back on Carlos’s bed, propping himself up on his elbows as he watched Carlos. He was kind of shameless about it, Carlos thought, and he tried to hide his smile at it. Jay had been sleeping in his own room since their conversation, a part of their whole ‘thinking things slow’ arrangement, and seeing him lying back on Carlos’s bed was making him want to just climb over onto him and kiss him senseless, wondering if maybe that might be better now, too.

That hadn’t kissed since their conversation either, though, which was definitely good for taking it slow but. Carlos did like kissing Jay. Maybe a first date was the perfect time for a re-do of their first kiss, Carlos thought as he grabbed the last of his sweaters from his top dresser drawer.

When he turned back to Jay he saw he had his arms aloft, staring at his phone, which caused his shirt to ride up, exposing his toned abdomen.

“Okay!” Carlos said, nearly dropping his clothes. “You gotta go, you’re gonna distract me.”

“Hm?” Jay said, glancing over at Carlos. He smirked when he must of seen him blushing. “Distract you, huh?” He rolled over onto his side, giving Carlos a suggestive look.

“Go!” Carlos said, kicking Jay’s shin. Jay laughed.

“Fine, fine!” he said, pushing himself off the bed. He reached out to brush a teasing hand across Carlos’s waist as he walked by, though, leaning in and breathing out, “dream about me, okay?” as he passed him on his way to the door.

Carlos elbowed him in the rib and Jay left the room laughing.

So, things were going good between them. They had a date. Carlos was moving out in two days. He still had a hard time sleeping at night, awake with anxiety, irritation, and the overwhelming desire for a cigarette.

But.

Things were going good. Like everything was back on track, in a way.

/

Jay glared at his reflection, biting on his lip as he touched the ends of his hair. They were starting to look a bit messy again, he hadn’t had a haircut since Mal’s wedding and Evie had told him the other day that “it showed.” He ran his fingers through it then, contemplative. On one level he didn’t really have any reason to be nervously fretting over his appearance, it wasn’t even actually his and Carlos’s first date when you thought of it. That was probably when Carlos had come over to Jay’s for dinner earlier in the summer. Jay had spent most of his nervous first date energy on the meal that time, though. Now, after they’d kind of started dating, got into a fight, stopped kind of dating, and were finally kind of actually really dating he had all those butterflies in his stomach anew.

As if his hair would make or break the relationship.

It was just dinner with Carlos, he insisted to himself.

Yet. Jay considered, for one moment of complete insanity on his part, just giving himself a trim. He quickly pushed away that thought as ridiculous, instead putting to pull his hair up, twisting it into a quick bun. 

He frowned at his reflection, still, reaching up to touch the red earring in his right ear. He’d only ever had the one, Gil once asked if it was special. It wasn’t, really. It was a real gemstone, a shining little garnet, Jay had stolen it off a pirate a long time ago. He’d been so surprised it was an actual gem, he kept it hidden just in case he ever really needed to placate his dad’s irritation at his less-than-impressive hauls. That was a long time ago. He never ended up using it, because it wouldn’t be enough and he stopped caring. In Auradon he’d found it at the bottom of his bag once he’d properly unpacked, once they knew they were staying. It was just one earring. Mal had pierced his ear for him in the bathroom of her and Evie’s dorm. 

He wondered if it was stupid to still have just the one earring, to still wear it every day.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. “Jay!” Carlos called through it. “Let’s go, I’m hungry!”

“Give me a minute!” Jay said, checking his phone for the time. Shit, it really was already nearly half past six. How had it already gotten to late? He quickly brushed his teeth, double checked his reflection, and straightened his shirt.

Carlos was leaning against the wall outside the bathroom. His hair was messy, as it usually was those days. He was looking down at his phone, but looked up when he realized Jay was in the hallway now. His initially annoyed expression turned contemplative as he stared at Jay. “Something I never told you: I like your hair better down. I don’t know why you always put it up when you’re trying to look fancy or whatever.”

Jay snorted, shaking his head. This was the sort of ‘communication’ game Carlos had proposed: ‘something I never told you.’ The day after they’d decided to work on their relationship seriously, Carlos had thought it up over breakfast. “We need to catch up,” he’d said. “So I’ll tell you something I never told you, then you tell me something you never to me.” Jay thought Carlos had been living with Evie for a bit too long, since it kind of sounded like an icebreaker to him, but it seemed suitable enough. Carlos told him that morning about how he’d had a terrible time in his first semester of college, and had sincerely considered dropping out at the time. That he’d mostly just stayed because he figured he would get busted smoking at some point and get kicked out. Jay didn’t really think that was true, which he told Carlos. He’d said that Carlos probably stayed because he knew he should, the rest was just him rationalizing his bad habits. Carlos was good at that.

Jay had told Carlos about staying at Reza’s Aunt’s place in Agrabah, how she hated him and how Reza was still the same obnoxious know-it-all he’d always been. But he’d asked about Carlos, to see if Carlos still knew more than him.

Now Carlos was telling him his hair looked better down.

Jay felt tempted to take it out of the bun right then, but he supposed he was specifically not supposed to be doing things just because of Carlos’s influence. 

“Good to know,” Jay said, instead, putting his arm through Carlos’s and leading him to the door. “Something I never told you: I think you’re cutest in the morning. I always used to love waking up next to you and seeing your sleepy face first thing in the morning. You smile in your sleep, sometimes.”

Carlos ducked his head, embarrassed as they exited the castle. “Okay,” he said. “Okay... Got it.”

Jay grinned at him, holding the car open for him because it would make him laugh. And it did. When he got in on the drivers side, Carlos asked him where he was taking them.

“Nowhere fancy,” Jay said. “Evie recommended a place to me, so. That’s where we’re going.”

“Got it,” Carlos said, giving him an amused look. His cheeks were pink when Jay glanced at him.

When they pulled up to their date venue, Carlos frowned at the bright neon lights. “I thought we were going to dinner?” he said after they’d parked, as he got out of the car.

“We are,” Jay said, grinning as he got out of the car as well. “Evie said the pizza is actually really good here.” They were at a bowling alley just outside of Auradon City. Carlos laughed, incredulous, shaking his head at Jay as they started towards the entrance of the bowling alley.

“Okay, then. Let’s do this,” he said, grabbing Jay’s hand. He grinned up at him, illuminated gold in the sun’s setting rays, tinted neon by the bright ‘RIVERSIDE BOWLING’ sign glowing above them. Jay tried to take a picture with his mind’s eye, finding himself falling in love with Carlos again.

They ordered a cheese pizza with onion on half of it. Jay got a beer and size 10 shoes; Carlos got a soda and asked for a size 9. The place wasn’t too crowded, so there was luckily no wait for a lane. Jay had only been bowling a few times in his life, all during college. Some of the tourney guys at SFU and a few cheerleaders he’d eventually become kind of friends with liked to go. He didn’t know if Carlos had ever played, but it seemed like a fun thing to do together and Evie truly had recommended the pizza to him. Apparently it was a standard double-date spot for her and Doug with Ben and Mal.

“You play before?” Jay asked, when they were sitting at their lane. He took a sip of his beer as Carlos tied his shoes.

“Some,” Carlos shrugged.

“Cool, so I won’t go easy on you,” Jay said, smirking and ruffling Carlos’s hair. Carlos snorted.

“Fine, show me what you’ve got,” he said. “You go first.” They put their names in the computer and Jay went up to bowl.

He got a spare, which he felt good about. It had been a while since he played, and he wasn’t _that_ good. He was competitive, sure, but him and his friends in college usually just got drunk and stupid when they played, so he didn’t really care about winning against them.

He grinned at Carlos, though, leaning against the railing. “Worried?” he said, cocky and teasing. Carlos laughed, full and gold.

“You’re okay,” he said. He got up to go bowl his turn, as Jay made his way back to the table. As the crossed paths, though, Carlos gabbed his wrist. “Hey.”

“Yeah?” Jay asked, taken off guard. Carlos looked up at him with a smile full of mischief and eyes sparking with something else that made Jay’s heart race.

“Let’s make a bet, if I get a strike, you take down your hair,” he said.

Jay laughed. “Fine, sure,” he said. “Let me guess, though, you’re actually incredible at bowling and this is gonna be an easy win?”

“Maybe,” Carlos said, grinning. He let go of Jay’s wrist and stepped up to the lane with his ball. He was focused, Jay could see the gears in his mind working. He had good form. Carlos always had good form in every sport they did together, he was always so careful and aware of his body.

And of course, he got a strike, turning back to look at jay with that golden grin of his. God, Jay wanted to kiss him. He opted instead to give Carlos a standing ovation. Carlos laughed, bowing for him.

“Something I never told you,” Carlos said, stepping up to where Jay at at the table. “I used to come here with Doug and Evie like every weekend, and I killed them at this game every single time.”

Jay laughed. “Of course Evie didn’t tell me that.”

Carlos chuckled. “Your hair now, please,” he said. Jay reached up to take out the bun, but Carlos stopped him. “Actually. Wait.”

“Oh, you want it up now?” Jay teased.

“No, it’s gotta come down. I wanna do it, though,” Carlos said, stepping close to Jay. Jay sat back down, smiling up at Carlos as he reached out and slowly undid the bun. He ran his fingers through Jay’s hair as it fell down over his shoulders, shaking out the curls.

“Better?” Jay said, and Carlos nodded.

“Yeah,” he said, soft, fingers still moving through Jay’s hair.

“Something I never told you,” Jay said, because Carlos had given him one and the moment just felt intimate like that. “I was avoiding you when I spent winter breaks at my dad’s. And I’m sorry I didn’t just face you… It wasn’t fair of me.”

Carlos’s hands stilled, but his expression was still soft as he nodded. “I’m sorry for not noticing,” he murmured. “Too busy thinking you didn’t care about me.”

“I’m sorry I let you think that,” Jay said, adding to the cycle of apologies. Carlos shrugged.

“It’s not your fault. It was just... Like that,” Carlos sighed. He leaned down and kissed Jay’s forehead. Jay closed his eyes with an exhale. When he opened them Carlos was smiling. “We spent a lot of time being stupid, huh?”

“Yeah,” Jay said. “And yet they still made you Valedictorian.”

Carlos snorted.

They continued the game, Carlos completely dusted Jay scores-wise. They ate their pizza, which was great, and drank their drinks before heading back to Evie’s castle. Carlos insisted that he drive since Jay had had alcohol, even though he’d only had the one beer at the start of the night. Jay was perfectly happy to spend the drive in the passenger’s seat, though, watching Carlo. Carlos smiled the whole way back to the castle, his face flushed and illuminated by the passing streetlights. Jay reached out and touched Carlos’s cheek, and carlos laughed.

“don’t distract me, idiot, I’m driving,” he said.

“Mmhm,” was all Jay responded with, pinching Carlos’s cheek lightly so that he’d laugh again.

When they got back to Evie’s, they paused outside Carlos’s room. Carlos leaned back on the door, giving Jay a curious look.

“So,” he said. “That’s it, then. I leave in the morning.”

Jay sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”

They stared at each other in silence before Carlos chuckled under his breath. “You can kiss me,” he said, head cocking to the side, eyes inviting with a flutter of his lashes.

“You sure?” Jay asked, suddenly nervous, even as he stepped closer to Carlos, unable to resist reaching out and brushing his hips with his fingertips. Carlos put his hands on Jay’s shoulders, playing with his hair again.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Carlos said. “God, you’re so gentlemanly... How did you manage to get only a C in Basic Chivalry, again?”

Jay shook his head, grinning. He placed a hand on Carlos’s cheek before dipping down to meet him in a kiss. Carlos exhaled into it, and while his anxiety was still there, there was none of the hectic fear that usually dominated Carlos’s kisses. Instead it was almost soft, tentative. Gentle.

When Jay went to pull back, Carlos pulled him back in closer. “No, more,” he demanded and Jay chuckled against his lips as he obliged, kissing him thoroughly. When he started kissing down Carlos’s jaw and neck, in the way that made Carlos’s breath catch in his throat, escaping in little gasps, Carlos spoke, “Something I never told you... I wanted to kiss you the night before you left for your gap year.”

“Yeah, I knew that,” Jay murmured against his pulse. “You were obvious.”

Carlos let out of soft chuckle-turned-groan as Jay tangled his hands in his hair and nipped at his jaw.

“Something I never told you, I wanted to kiss you every single day in high school,” Jay said. “Before, even. Since I learned about kissing. Every girl was a poor substitution.”

“Explains a lot,” Carlos said, before gasping as Jay sucked a mark into the spot right above his collar bone. “Sleep in here tonight.”

Jay pulled away. “Really?”

“Yeah, it’s my last night here,” Carlos said. “Then I’ll be busy working and you’ll be busy with training and we can spend so much time not kissing.”

“Okay,” Jay said, trying not to sound too eager. “Okay.”

Carlos led him into his room, and it was so familiar yet so much better. They stripped down to tee shirts and their underwear, their usual short-notice-sleeping-arrangement pajamas. Carlos pulled him onto his bed, and he kissed him.

They stayed up late, talking as the time on the clock moved into the AM. Carlos continued to run his fingers through Jay’s hair. Jay decided he’d get a trim before training started, so Carlos could run his hands through it without catching on the ends. Even if he didn’t seem to mind at that moment.

Jay fell asleep before Carlos, with his arm around him and Carlos’s head on his chest.

He felt warm, and safe, and confident. Confident things were going to be alright for them. They were finally back on track.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’ve got a lot planned for this part, i think it’ll end up being around ~40k. we Have to start off with a much earned jaylos first date that is just as soft and warm as they deserve 🥺
> 
> tumblr; vndooms


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> / denotes POV swap  
> \- denotes regular scene break

Carlos was planning on heading out to the Summerlands by himself. Jay had a meeting with his dad’s doctor and Evie had a secret meeting she wouldn’t tell them about.

“It’s very important and very exciting,” she said. “You know I wish I was going with you!”

“I know,” Carlos had said as she hugged him tight that morning. The meeting had her leaving early, and so she’d ambushed him in bed after her morning run with Jay which was generally way earlier than Carlos ever woke up. Well. Now that he wasn’t walking up before dawn to sneak out and smoke.

“Oh, I saw Jay slept in here again last night,” she said when she pulled away, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

Carlos rolled his eyes. “We just slept,” he said. “We haven’t done... That. Anything.”

“Really?” Evie asked, looking a bit curious. “After this long?”

“Oh my god, Evie. Leave, you’ve lost farewell privileges,” Carlos said, shoving at her. She giggled.

“Absolutely not! Don’t shove me away on your last morning here!” she cried, clutching onto him.

“Don’t you have a meeting to go to?” Carlos said, feeling a bit suffocated by her embrace.

“Mm,” Evie mumbled, face buried in Carlos’s shoulder.

“I’ll be back this weekend, Evie,” he said. “You’ll barely notice I’m gone.” He patted her on the head and she sighed, nodding as she pulled away.

“Okay, okay,” she pouted, running a hand through her hair. “I’ve gotta go, you’re right. But I’ll see you this weekend, right? Promise?”

“I’ve already promised a million times,” Carlos said. “But yes, I’ll be back this weekend, Friday night.”

“Okay, okay, okay,” Evie said, finally getting off of Carlos’s bed. She paused on her way to the door. “Oh—Jay already left, sorry, but he said he’d call you later?”

Carlos nodded. “Got it, thanks, now go! Don’t be late because of me.”

Evie blew him a kiss before running out of the room. Carlos shook his head, laughing. He dragged himself out of his bed after she was gone, stomach rumbling. He’d have breakfast then it would be time to shove all of his stuff in his car. Then off on his way. His head hurt, but that was just a standard part of his morning routine at that point. Acknowledge the throbbing pain accompanied by a craving for cigarettes, then attempt to drown it out with a cup of black coffee loaded with sugar and hope for the best.

While Carlos was drinking his coffee and eating a plain bagel his phone rang. Ben’s name lit up on the screen and Carlos answered it.

“Hey, Ben,” Carlos said around a mouthful of bagel.

“Hey!” Ben said, sounding cheerful. “Guess what?”

“What?” Carlos asked.

“I have the whole day off and I realized we haven’t really hung out in a while—so I was wondering what you were up to today?”

“Oh,” Carlos said, feeling kind of bad. He hadn’t spent time with just Ben in a long time, that was true. They used to spend a lot of time together when they were both in undergrad together. “I’m actually moving today... Out to the Summerlands, I got a job there.”

“That’s great!” Ben said. “Do you need any help? If I’m gonna be honest, running away to the Summerlands to help you move sounds like a perfect use of my first day off in a while. Actually, if I’m going to be completely honest, I don’t really know what to do with a day off anymore.”

Carlos laughed. “Relax, maybe?” he suggested.

“I don’t even remember how to do that,” Ben said.

Carlos considered his offer. “I think I would like some company, actually. Everyone’s busy today, so I’m on my own.”

“Awesome, I’ll head over to Evie’s right now,” Ben said. Carlos confirmed the details with him before hanging up.

Ben was dropped off by one of his drivers, saying he’d get a car back to the castle from the Summerlands as well. Carlos was genuinely happy to see him when he stepped out of the car. He smiled brightly at Carlos.

“Excited to be moving?” he greeted him with a hug.

“To live alone in a secluded cabin in the woods? I don’t know,” Carlos laughed, pulling a face.

“You won’t be alone, Dude will be with you,” Ben said, cheerfully. “Auradon City’s gonna miss both of you, though.”

“It’s not like I see enough of Auradon City, anyway,” Carlos said with a sigh as he led Ben into Evie’s castle so they could finish grabbing the last of the boxes of Carlos’s things.

“Yeah, being adults doesn’t give us a lot of time, huh?” Ben said.

Carlos nodded, even though he didn’t really feel like an adult.

The drive ended up being fun. Ben showed Carlos a band he’d never heard of before, apparently they were small and very indie, a group of VKs and Auradon kids. He played their few EPs on Spotify for Carlos and he liked them. They were a bit poppier than Carlos had ever heard a VK band play, and the lyrics were a bit cheesy but it was still good music despite that.

They stopped for lunch on the way, getting sandwiches from a convenience store at a rest stop, Ben fed Dude a bunch of beef jerky.

When they arrived at the cabin, Carlos got the keys from the lock box. Ben standing behind him, carrying Dude’s kennel and grinning. When they entered the cabin it was cleaner than the last time Carlos had been there, and most of the current tenant’s effects had been taken away with them on their trip, leaving a furnished and vaguely decorated yet still kind of bare feeling cabin.

“This is actually pretty cool,” Ben said, setting down Dude’s kennel and letting him out. Dude cautiously stepped into the cabin, sniffing around. “Yeah, boy, this is your new home,” Ben said to the dog.

Dude sniffed his way to the couch, which he jumped on, facing the guys with an expectant look.

“Not now,” Carlos said with a smile. “We’ve got to get all the boxes in here, and then maybe there will be time for cuddles.”

Dude whined, but lied down patiently while Carlos and Ben set to retrieving all of Carlos’s belongings. Ben hummed happily as he did so, and Carlos felt grateful that he was there for him.

“Anything you wanna unpack first?” he said, as he brought in the last box, setting it on the coffee table.

“Honestly, my books,” Carlos said, sitting on the couch and petting Dude. Of course Dude would take that as a cue to jump up and finally explore the cabin. Carlos rolled his eyes, moving to the floor to sit beside Ben as he shuffled through the boxes to find which one had his books in them.

“Here we are,” Ben said. “Books!” He held up two books, a novel he himself had gifted Carlos from Christmas one year and an old, beat up biology textbook that Carlos had salvaged from the wharf once. They made Carlos have to bite back a smile. That was why he was so sentimental about his books, they were collected from what felt like his many lifetimes at that point. People tended to get him books as gifts since he was kind of a nerd, and he liked it, accumulating his little library of gifts and salvaged memories. A waterlogged art book Mal had given him, mock-carelessly, as they set up their warehouse hideout, stacked next to a pristine copy of Jane’s favorite YA fantasy novel. 

“You never told me what you thought of this book,” Ben said, looking over the book he’d initially pulled out as Carlos stacked the other books on the little shelf next to the couch.

“It was really good,” Carlos said, glancing at the paperback. It was a fairytale. Not one of the real-life ones, but the ones with made up characters. A hero who fought to save a forgotten kingdom, with a bittersweet ending where he has to sacrifice himself, becoming forgotten in his own right. Carlos had read it three times in a row over winter break his first year of college, when Jay wouldn’t come see them. “So melancholic, and the author really got the atmosphere down. Feels heavy to just look at it.”

Ben nodded. “It’s one of my favorites,” he said. “Mal told me it was too sad when she read it, and then she told me I shouldn’t have given it to you.” Ben shook his head. “Sometimes it’s best to just let yourself feel sad, though, right?”

Carlos blinked at him. “You really saw through me then, huh?”

“I knew adapting to college was hard on you, and Jay had left... I didn’t know what exactly was going on in your mind,” Ben said. “Mal had her theories,” he sighed. He handed Carlos the book. “I didn’t really listen to them, though, not my business, right? But you’re my friend, Carlos. I notice you.”

Carlos nodded, hand brushing over the cover of the book.

“You and Jay are doing well now, though?” Ben said, and Carlos felt his cheeks warm up. He guessed he should just assume Mal had told Ben everything she knew, and if Jay had talked to her then. She knew everything.

“I mean, we had our first fight and made it out alive, so. Yeah. I’d say we’re doing well,” Carlos said, shrugging.

“What did you guys fight about?” Ben asked.

“I don’t know,” Carlos sighed. “I mean—I do. Obviously, we talked about it. But it was just... Everything, I think. We were so invested in this relationship working out we were too scared to have an actual relationship.”

Ben nodded. “Doesn’t that bring me back.”

“I’m sure it does,” Carlos laughed under his breath. “We’re working on it, though. Talking. Working together. I really like him, I want to be with him.” Carlos paused. “If I’m being honest, though, I feel so stupid I let it get like this. I’m trying to cut myself some slack, but then I feel like I don’t deserve any slack.”

“I get that,” Ben said. “I had a lot of that guilt... With Audrey and everything. Even before Mal, you know.”

Ben’s cheeks were pink as Carlos nodded understandingly, he always got a shy embarrassed look on his face when he brought up his own sexuality. He’d told Carlos years ago, after pulling an all nighter together to study for finals, about how before Mal he’d only ever crushed on boys. He’d stayed with Audrey because they’d been practically betrothed as children and it was just expected of him. Even if he wrote ‘Ben Charming’ in a flourishing script in his diary as a child, or imagined going with Doug to cotillions instead of Audrey. Then Mal came along, he said, and he was embarrassed and a bit ashamed to say it felt like a relief to have those feelings for a girl. It had been a surprisingly raw and relatable moment, but Carlos hadn’t confided in turn, back then. His heart had raced as he thought of why he’d started smoking, of his lightheaded breathlessness when Ben himself had complimented him when he’d first arrived in Auradon... He hadn’t known how to respond at all.

“It’s weird,” Carlos said. “I feel like I should’ve been able to talk to you about this.”

“It’s not the same, though,” Ben said. “I’m bi, you’re gay.”

“You get it, though,” Carlos said. “The fear of being different... Not fitting in quite right here.” Ben nodded. Carlos looked back down at the book in his hand and recalled the feeling of wanting to disappear like the protagonist at the end, while being so afraid he already had in any meaningful way. He put the book on the shelf and looked back up at Ben. “I’m tired of talking, let’s unbox the video games now. The TV here is huge.”

They set up Carlos’s game system and played a few rounds of a racing game before ordering pizza from a local place for dinner, which they ate while watching a random cooking competition show on TV. Ben left after, hugging Carlos and telling him he was glad to spend time with him. That he’d really missed that.

“I hope we can do it again soon,” Carlos said with a smile. Ben left with a wave, and Carlos was alone, besides Dude, in the cabin. He took Dude out for his last walk of the night, walking around the back of the cabin and letting Dude sniff everything. He barked at some chipmunks out in the brush and Carlos laughed.

A part of Carlos registered that it would be easier than ever to sneak a smoke there, but. He didn’t have any cigarettes.

When Carlos returned inside his phone buzzed insistently. The promised call from Jay. He smiled and answered, setting his phone on speaker and placing it in the breast pocket of his shirt as he dragged his box of clothes to the bedroom.

“Carlos!” Jay said, his tinny voice filling the room and making Carlos feel warm. “I’m in your room right now, devastated you’re not here!”

Carlos snorted. “Okay, pervert,” he said.

“Don’t be gross,” Jay laughed. “I’m just lying in your bed, smelling your pillows, imagining you here beside me.”

“Uhg,” Carlos groaned, opening his box of clothes and moving the shirts on top to the drawers next to the bed. “You’re making me sick.”

“How was the move? You manage well enough on your own?” Jay asked.

“Ben came with, actually,” Carlos said. “So he was here to sufficiently distract me with video games and pizza in your place.”

“Not with kissing, I hope,” Jay teased. “Oh—hey, did you know Mal thinks you had a crush on him in high school?”

“Well, she’s right.”

“What!” Jay said. “Take that back. You liked him before you liked me?”

“It was just a crush,” Carlos rolled his eyes, even though Jay couldn’t see him. He thought Jay knew him well enough to get it. “I had a crush on you before that, too. When you were nice to me at Dragon Hall, but those were just crushes, don’t get a big head. I wasn’t in love with you.”

Jay sighed, faux-dramatic. “Yeah... My one-sided past.”

“Tell me about your meeting with your dad’s doctor,” Carlos said.

“Fine, change the subject,” Jay grumbled. “It was okay, just some stuff about his treatments and changing up medicine or something. Honestly I can never follow these meetings. I should bring you along since you’re practically a doctor. You can translate for me.”

“They should explain things in ways you understand,” Carlos frowned.

“Well, they don’t. I think it’s on purpose.”

“You think they’re conspiring against your father?” Carlos asked.

“Maybe...” Jay said. “It’s just weird at the hospital. Uhg, especially now. My dad decided to take my advice about playing nice and putting on a good face, and so now he loves talking to the press about anything that he thinks will make us look good and it’s honestly cringe-worthy.”

“How horrible, your dad’s being good.”

“Shut up,” Jay said, and Carlos had to bite his lip to not laugh at Jay’s petulant tone. “Hey... I miss you,” Jay said.

“It’s been like ten hours,” Carlos said.

“Yeah, and?” Jay retorted.

“And so you’ll be okay,” Carlos said. “Even Evie hasn’t started spamming my snapchat with sad selfies yet.”

“Evie’s not your boyfriend,” Jay offered, and Carlos hummed.

“Are you my boyfriend?” he asked.

Jay paused, hesitant. Carlos listened to the dead air, there was a static to it. He’d stopped putting away his clothes, standing and waiting for Jay’s response, holding his breath. “I want to be,” Jay said, finally, and Carlos let out a long breath.

“I think I want you to be, too,” Carlos confessed. “It’s scary, though.”

“The scariest part is how badly I want it, I think,” Jay laughed, soft.

“I get that,” Carlos said. “Let’s... Let’s wait before we use that label, though, okay?”

“Okay,” Jay agreed. “That sounds fair.”

Carlos smiled, glad they’d talked about that, even if just a little.

Jay asked more questions about the move and the cabin. He offered in return for the confession about his old crush on Ben to tell Carlos something he’d never told him about some sketchy cabin in the woods Jay and Gil had stayed at that was most definitely the home of an axe-wielding murderer. Carlos laughed it off with a no thank you, ignoring the prickling under his skin at the mention of Gil. 

Soon enough his clothes were unpacked, Dude was fed his dinner, and it was time to say good night.

“I’ll see you this weekend?” Jay said.

“Yeah,” Carlos replied. “Try not to die of missing me.”

“It’ll be a feat,” Jay said theatrically, with a heavy sigh.

Dude curled up by Carlos’s feet, and Carlos stared at the ceiling. He craved a cigarette and missed Jay beside him. But it was another day done, and it had been a good one. He’d be okay, he decided.

-

Carlos’s first day at the vet clinic didn’t go as well as he’d wanted. He’d been woken up early by Dude demanding a walk, running around the house and barking insistently. In the past he’d just be able to open the door and let him out into his or Evie’s yard, but the cabin was just in the middle of the woods, and Carlos didn’t trust Dude to not get lost. So Carlos had to drag himself out of bed, finding he had a horrible headache. His irritability was high, and he couldn’t figure out the cabin’s coffee maker before he had to leave, so he felt like absolute shit by the time he arrived at the clinic.

So of course it was extremely busy when Carlos got there, Sophie was running around, there was an old woman inside freaking out over something and a dog was howling and barking somewhere in the building.

“I just found them in my yard, will they be okay?” she was saying.

“Yes, of course, of course, we’ve got a lot going on, though, so thank you for bringing— Carlos!” Sophie said as she noticed Carlos. “Hayley didn’t show today, apparently she thought I didn’t need her, and—I’m so sorry, could you just follow me around, I’ll tell you what to do?”

“Uh—sure,” Carlos said, and so he did exactly that. One of the first things Sophie had told him to do was hold a needy dog that had been dropped off the evening before.

“He’s fine,” Sophie had said as she took the howling dog from its kennel and handed it to Carlos. “He just won’t stop screaming and I can’t think like this—That woman brought in a sick rabbit and there’s this whole thing with—uhg, we’ll get to it.”

So Carlos carried a dog and followed Sophie as she worked. She sent him to answer the phones at one point, taking down numbers and names, trying to offer answers when he felt capable. Sophie would run out and ask him to help her with something in between calls, and he’d try to do the best he could.

When things finally calmed down it was well past the afternoon, making it a very long first day for Carlos. The dog, named Mighty, was picked up by their owner and after that Sophie announced they were closing up.

“Sorry that was so crazy, we’re usually out of here by 4:30…” Sophie said, looking at her watch. “Looks like it’s nearly 6:30 now… Hey, let me treat you to a drink? There’s a little bar down the road that’s pretty good. They’ve got great sliders too, if you’re hungry.”

“Uh,” Carlos said, embarrassed. “I’m actually seeing someone…”

“Oh no, no, not like that!” Sophie said, laughing. “Not that you’re not cute—just as a get to know each other, boss and intern situation, and an apology for such a rough first day! Nothing more, don’t worry.”

Carlos’s face heated up at his misunderstanding. “Oh. Sorry, yeah, that sounds good.” He forced a smile. Usually he’d politely refuse, but now it felt too awkward to, like Sophie might still think he thought she had ulterior motives.

So Sophie gave him directions to the bar and he followed after her there.

The bar was in what looked like an old cabin, next to a worn looking car shop, and Carlos felt struck by how un-princess-like Sophie was as she waited for him by the door. She grinned at him, and after they went inside and seated themselves at the surprisingly well-lit bar, Carlos felt a bit awkward. Not really knowing what to say he asked her about herself and her life. She told him she’d always wanted to be a vet, and had always been very studious. She used to play tennis, which was information Carlos responded to by telling her about the summer tennis class Evie had made them take back at Auradon Prep, relieved that conversation was flowing naturally on its own.

“God, I love that girl,” Sophie said, laughing. “She made you all custom tennis outfits?”

“She made all of our outfits at that point,” Carlos said, grinning, his irritation at the day was beginning to fade, even though a part of his mind was still trying to piece together a plan to get a cigarette despite them all being impossible. They had ordered the sliders Sophie had recommended, and while he drank a coke she had a lite beer.

“How has she always been so cool?” Sophie shook her head. “My mom actually told me that she’s working with her on some sort of a project for later this summer… It’s weird to think in another reality she’d be my aunt.”

“Well, in that other reality you wouldn’t exist,” Carlos said, shrugging, and Sophie laughed a shocked laugh.

“I guess you’re right,” she said. “It’s so weird, in this world where such terrible things happen—you can’t wish them away or else you’ll lose the good stuff too, huh?

“I guess?” Carlos said, even though he didn’t really think an Auradon kid could really know about terrible things. But he’d followed that line of logic enough, of wishing terrible things away, and wishing himself away with them. Him and his closest friends were all products of terrible thing after terrible thing. He wasn’t interested in reliving that thought process again.

“Tell me about you, though,” Sophie said. “When did you decide to be a vet?”

“Oh, during the career fair in my senior year,” Carlos said. “I thought I might want to be an engineer or something before that—but then, I don’t know. It felt like a sudden calling as I read the pamphlets about becoming a veterinarian.” Carlos chuckled. “I think I actually just wanted to do something so opposite to what my mother did. Undo some of the damage she did.” Carlos averted his attention to his soda. “My mom and I… Don’t get along.” A simplification.

Sophie nodded. “Well, my mom’s stepmom tried to kill her so I can’t say that’s a foreign concept to me.”

Carlos offered her a weak smile. “Yeah, fair.”

“So… You said you’re seeing someone? Are you still with Jane?” Sophie asked. “I remember tabloid websites used to always theorize when you two would tie the knot, after Evie got married—Awful, right? But I can’t help but be curious.”

Carlos’s cheeks went hot. “We broke up, actually,” he said. “I actually was going to propose to her this summer, though.” He wasn’t really sure why he disclosed that, it just kind of came out. Sophie gave a sympathetic nod.

“I get it, I thought it would be forever with my high school sweetheart, too,” she said. “It’s rough when such a pivotal relationship just ends.”

“Yeah,” Carlos said. “I miss her, even if we weren’t…” Carlos frowned, thinking of how to say it. Oh, fuck it, he decided. “I’m gay, is the thing.”

“Oh!” Sophie said. “Oh, well. Congratulations on coming to terms with that.”

“Thanks, it’s been a journey,” Carlos snorted.

“So you’re seeing… A guy now?” Sophie said, curious.

“Um, kind of. I mean—yes,” Carlos said. “We’re taking it slow, though.”

Sophie nodded, not prying any further. They talked about work a bit, what was coming up the next day. Sophie said she’d make sure Hayley would be there to help him get accustomed to his job there, since he would basically be doing the clerical work she usually did over the summer.

Carlos checked his texts before driving home. Jay had texted him a string of hearts, Mal had texted him a ‘ _hey thanks for keeping ben company yesterday, missing u_ ’.

/

Jay sent Carlos the string of heart emojis as he stepped into Evie’s castle. He’d spent all day at the hospital. His dad was feeling weak, and Jay felt nervous about leaving him, since he was in a mood as well and didn’t want to act weak. He wouldn’t even eat his lunch in his room, insisting on dragging Jay to the cafeteria to eat where he just drilled Jay on his career prospects. Apparently he’d seen on some sports news channel that Jay had turned down a good offer (Northern Wei) for a bad offer (the Summerlands). Snow White was volunteering that day and managed to join them just in time to tell his dad that the Summerlands didn’t technically have the worst team in the league. Just the worst in their section.

“And their budget?” Jafar had said, deadpan, and Jay had to remind him that wasn’t everything while Snow had giggled in a kind of Evie-like way.

Jay didn’t know if Snow had volunteered with the rush of other reporters who had suddenly decided that reading books to terminally ill children with diseases immune to magic was their calling just as Jafar was admitted, but she was pretty much the last one around. She was also the only one who’d taken a different angle in her reporting of the whole ‘Jafar Situation,’ shining a sympathetic light on it all. The sick dad and his son who was willing to risk it all for him, or something like that. Jay didn’t really pay attention to the articles about his father, or himself for that matter. Even though, as Snow pointed out in their conversation, he was really making some interesting history for the PTL.

Jay was still looking at his phone, as he entered the castle and made his way to the kitchen to get something to eat before heading to his room for the night. He looked up when he noticed Evie sitting at the table. There were a couple dozen sheets of paper scattered in front of her, she was staring at a couple with her brow furrowed in concentration.

“Working on your secret project?” Jay asked. Snow had mentioned it, earlier that day. Apparently Evie’s secret meeting the morning before had been with her, she wouldn’t tell him what the project was, though. Jay sat down across from Evie, she didn’t look up at him, though. She bit her lip and Jay recognized the expression on her face as one of concern. He frowned.

“No,” she said. “No, I—here.” She shoved a paper at Jay. He peered down at it, feeling himself tense as he read it.

‘ _Genevieve,_

_If you are going to dress my son, do it correctly._

_Signed,_  
Cruella de Vil  
House of de Vil’

Short. Sweet. 

“What is this?” Jay said, looking up at Evie. She finally looked at him, her face conflicted. She gestured at the papers, Jay grabbed some of them. They were all design sketches of black, white, and red accented outfits on a white haired man. “Oh my God, she’s insane.”

“Yeah,” Evie said. “Yeah, absolutely.” She continued to frown at the sketches in consideration. “Some of these, though... I like some.”

“Come on, Evie? You’re not gonna do anything with these, are you?” Jay said.

“No... No, of course not,” Evie said, shaking her head. She gave Jay a look he couldn’t read, though. “Unless you think I should?”

“I think you should toss these in the garbage,” Jay said. He picked one up, a sketch of a weird asymmetrical trench coat. “Carlos wouldn’t want this.”

Evie bit her lip. “I know,” she said. “But some are good.” She rummaged through the papers, pulling one out. “I like this one, it would suit him,” she showed Jay one depicting the Carlos-esque figure in a thick sweater covered in geometric shapes, red pants on the bottom. “And this one—even though I’m not sure if it’s really Carlos’s style... A few adjustments and I think I could make it work.” She showed Jay a jumpsuit. “It’s weirdly retro yet trendy... And there’s some jackets he’d wear.” She looked at the designs, still apprehensive but Jay could feel her desire to do something with them. Her fingers were twitching, as if she wanted to go through her fabric stashes to match textiles to the sketches.

“Are you hearing yourself right now?” Jay said. “This is Cruella we’re talking about, Carlos’s mom. She’s just trying to worm her way back into his life through you.”

Evie deflated with a sigh, leaning back in her chair. “You’re right,” she said. “I know that... I just.” Evie gave Jay a guilty, defeated look and a shrug.

“I get it, I know,” Jay said, understanding. He stood up, rounding the table to put a hand on Evie’s shoulder.

“I don’t think you do,” Evie said, giving him a sad smile over her shoulder. 

“I do!” Jay said, surprised at her remark. “I was there when he saw her after the barrier was taken down, I know how it feels to see just how different it is for him with her.”

“It’s not that different, though,” Evie said, frustration creeping into her voice. “I mean—I know he won't ever be inviting her to live with him, he wouldn’t stick her neck out for her, and he shouldn’t! I’m not saying that—I’m just saying I know what it’s like to hate your mom, and I don’t think you can just leave it like that...”

Jay frowned. “You never hated your mom.”

Evie shook her head. “See, you don’t get it. You all think me and my mom have some perfect relationship, like all she did was tell me I was too pretty and treat me like a princess.”

Jay sat in the chair next to Evie. She was glaring at the sketches now, avoiding looking at Jay. “I don’t think that, Eves, we all had it hard—“

“You guys don’t know how hard it _was_ ,” Evie snapped, shoulders tense. “How hard forgiving her was, how hard it was to get to where we are now... You don’t know anything about what it was like living trapped in there for so long. She wasn’t... She wasn’t in her right mind most of the time. Sometimes she’d think I was Snow White, and she’d just start yelling at me and telling me I should be _dead_. When I was a kid I was so paranoid she’d poison me, I didn’t eat for days on end.” Evie’s eyes were glassy, she gripped onto the sketches tightly as she glared down at them determinedly. “Maybe that was her goal,” she choked out. “I hated her, Jay. I really did, because I could never tell if she was going to be mean or nice or murderous on any given day... My childhood sucked, and I didn’t even have to leave my castle.”

“Evie...” Jay said, at a loss. He reached out and touched her shoulder, she relaxed a bit, leaning towards him. She set down the sketch, rubbing her eyes, glancing at Jay.

“It’s okay,” she said. “We’ve talked about it, we’ve worked on it... We’re working on it, still. There were good times, too, so it’s not like it was all that... I’m just saying, I know the weight of those feelings... Of the fear and the anger, and I don’t want Carlos to live with those forever.”

Jay nodded.

“But you’re right,” Evie said, stacking the papers together. “These aren’t an olive branch. Cruella is just finding a new way into Carlos’s life so she can use him.”

“Yeah,” Jay said, hollow. He wished he wasn’t right.

“I don’t think I’m going to throw them out just yet, though,” Evie said, tapping the stack of papers to make them even. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with them, but. I want to keep them.”

Jay frowned but he shrugged. “Your prerogative,” he said. “Hey, by the way, I meant it when I said I didn’t think that. I never thought you had it easy growing up.”

Evie nodded, offering a small smile. “I know. Carlos does, though,” she said.

“Carlos thinks I had an easy childhood,” Jay said with a sigh. “He’s just in his own head too much, I think.”

/

Carlos drove himself and Dude back down to Evie’s that weekend, just as he told her he would. Dude seemed more excited to see Evie than anything, running up and jumping into her arms the second Carlos opened the car door outside the familiar castle. Evie was sitting outside on the steps, grinning, with a cup of tea in her hands. The sun was almost gone over the horizon, illuminating them in a golden light. Carlos had headed out right after he’d got out of work that day so it was far past dinner time, he thought.

“Where’s Jay?” Carlos asked, approaching Evie and Dude.

“That’s the first thing you say to me?” Evie said, pouting playfully. She stood up and punched his shoulder lightly. “He ran out to get pizza for us, I didn’t realize you’d be here so soon—you must’ve been speeding the whole drive here.” Evie led Carlos inside the castle, to the living room where Doug was sitting working on a puzzle on the coffee table. He greeted Carlos with a smile, which Carlos returned easily. It actually felt really nice to be back in Evie’s castle. He sat beside Doug, offering to help him with the puzzle while Evie played with Dude on the other end of the couch. It was nice, it felt like home. Carlos hadn’t realized that Evie’s castle had become like that.

When Jay arrived, he almost dropped the pizza as he tried to set it on the coffee table in his rush to tackle Carlos on the couch, hugging him as if he’d been gone for months instead of just a week. It felt strangely overdue, though, after all their lukewarm reunions, and Carlos laughed, holding him close despite the awkward angle.

“Uhg, missed you, C,” Jay said, before pulling away and falling onto the couch next to him, arm slung around his shoulder. Carlos grinned at him, happy to be pressed against him again.

“You messed up our puzzle,” Doug said, frowning at the coffee table. Carlos looked over to see that he was right, the pizza had pushed a third of the puzzle onto the floor.

“Oh, shit,” Jay said, jumping up to try and fix it while Evie laughed, opening one of the boxes of pizza and grabbing a slice for herself.

Carlos felt himself sink into the moment, leaning back on the couch. “Hey, you better put all those pieces back where we had them,” he said to Jay.

“You don’t even know where you had them,” Jay insisted, “isn’t that the point of a puzzle?”

Jay did work together with Carlos and Doug on the puzzle, though. It was a picture of some birds, probably an old gift Doug had dug out from the game closet. Carlos knew that if you were the type of nerdy guy Doug was, you got lots of puzzles in addition to books for gifts, Carlos had received enough of his own. Doug always preferred music for gifts, Carlos got him a new vintage record every year for Christmas after he’d fixed his record player for him their senior year at Auradon Prep. 

Jay sat on the floor, piecing through sky tiles, chewing through fully on his pizza and Carlos couldn’t stop smiling at him, even as he put the red pieces of a cardinal together. Doug snorted and elbowed him when he’d spent too long just staring at Jay’s (frankly, adorable) concentrated expression without putting down any puzzle pieces. He gave Carlos a look that made his cheeks warm up, despite the fact that Doug was the last person who should be saying anything about anyone being embarrassingly obvious about their affection. Carlos rolled his eyes.

They all talked, asking Carlos about his time at the clinic, asking how Sophie was doing.

“Oh, she told me your secret project has something to do with her mom?” Carlos said, raising a brow at Evie. Evie grinned.

“Yeah, Snow mentioned it to me at the hospital, too!” Jay said, “what are you guys up to? It’s been a week.”

“Okay, okay!” Evie said. “Sophie actually told Snow about how slow the summer was for me and how it was setting us behind on getting thenew castle—and Snow decided to throw a summer ball so there’d be more demand for dresses, you know?”

“That’s awesome,” Carlos said.

“Yes, and then I don’t even know,” Evie waved her hands vaguely, “it just became this whole thing! It’s going to be a charity fundraiser to sponsor some VK outreach projects around Auradon. We’re actually meeting with Mal and Uma next week to talk about what programs need help and stuff like that. It’s going to be a night all about unity and moving into the future together as one Auradon, the isle included. Our parents included.” Evie sighed. “I really like Snow, it’s nice working with her.”

Carlos glanced at Doug and saw he had pure awe and adoration for his wife in his eyes, he was grinning.

“That’s so sick,” Jay said, smiling as well. “So she’s legit?”

“Legit, legit,” Evie said.

“Hm,” Jay said, nodding. “So when’s the big event?”

“Up at her castle the second week of August, probably. A beautiful event to cap off the summer,” Evie sighed dreamily and Carlos couldn’t help but laugh. It was so perfect, so Evie. He felt so happy for her.

Jay followed Carlos to his room after they ate and decided to abandon the puzzle for the night. They hung out for a while, enjoying each other’s company and cuddling on Carlos’s bed. Carlos asked Jay about his day, and Jay told him about it. Carlos told Jay about how he’d taken Dude to work with him and how Sophie had nearly cried at seeing the old school mutt, she hadn’t known that Carlos had actually adopted him.

Jay left to his room later in the evening, to sleep. Even without Jay in his bed, Carlos slept better than he did at the cabin. Dude curled up beside him and the familiar feeling of his room at Evie’s, the lingering scent and warmth of Jay beside him... Carlos had had many homes in his life, but few had truly felt like capital H _Home_ like this one did.

The rest of the weekend went by nicely. Evie was really busy but Jay and Carlos tagged along to a recording session for Doug’s band on Saturday that ended up being really fun. They weren’t half bad. Carlos sat on a leather couch, with Jay sprawled out beside him, head in Carlos’s lap.

Late Saturday night, Carlos was drawn outside by a craving, even if he didn’t have any cigarettes. His body seemed to demand the familiar motion of sneaking out. He sat in the garden, in his old usual spot, picking at his cuticles. Evie joined him after a while, sitting beside him with a huff. She gave him a smile, but the mood wasn’t for talking. She had some embroidery with her—an old hobby. She worked on it while Carlos felt grateful to have her there beside him. He leaned against her, closing his eyes.

When Sunday morning came, Carlos joined Jay and Evie for their morning run. He’d never done that before, but it was kind of nice. He was a little out of shape, but they took care to not outpace him too much. He appreciated it.

Sunday afternoon he drove back to the Summerlands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why is this chapter so long... i dont know...... probably a long break in updates from here tho bc i only have one scene i haven’t posted fjdklfjsa perhaps i should hold off another couple days on this but. i want to post it.


	3. Chapter 3

In Carlos’s second week, Sophie asked him if he knew Gil. Which was. Awkward.

“I’ve followed him on instagram for a while, he’s so cool,” she’d said, leaning against the front desk during a slow hour of the day, snacking on the M&Ms he’d started keeping there. “And I know he used to date your friend, Jay.”

“Uh, no, I don’t really know him,” Carlos said. “He was more… Jay’s friend. Then his boyfriend. Then his ex. I didn’t really talk to him.”

Sophie had given him a long look. “Is he not so cool in person?”

“No, no!” Carlos said, cheeks warming up. “He’s cool, perfectly fine. I just.”

Sophie nodded, understanding growing on her face. Carlos hadn’t told her that the guy he was seeing was Jay, it wasn’t like he wanted to keep it secret he just didn’t think it was relevant. She didn’t know him, just of him. She’d told Carlos already that she’d been fascinated by the VKs when they’d arrived, and loosely kept up with the news on them. “Nothing more interesting than the daughter of your mother’s murderer going to your old school,” she’d said.

Carlos was driving back to the cabin, then, trying to push down the weird feeling that came up at thinking about Gil. And Jay. Gil and Jay. They’d broken up two years ago, or at least Carlos thought so. Jay had never told him about his breakup, besides saying it was mutual and then mentioning it had something to do with him during their argument… Carlos didn’t know if he wanted to hear about it. He didn’t know if Jay and Gil were still friends. His stomach churned, and he found himself tapping on the steering wheel anxiously, fingers itching.

When he got to the cabin he was surprised to see Mal outside it, sitting on the doorstep. Dude was outside as well, Mal was throwing a stick for him to play fetch with. She had a small smile on her face, head cocked to the side as she played with the dog. She looked up and smiled wider when Carlos pulled up, eyebrows quirked in a cocky expression.

“What are you doing here?” Carlos asked, inexplicably glad to see her, no matter how unexpected.

“Needed to get out of the city, Ben suggested I drop in,” Mal said, standing up and dusting herself off.

“How’d you get inside?” he gestured to Dude, who was running up to Carlos and barking at him.

Mal laughed, pushing inside the cabin, Carlos following behind her, Dude in his arms. “Carlos, come on,” she said. “We’re from the isle, I can pick a lock.” She sat down on the couch.

“You want something to drink?” Carlos asked.

“Water, please,” Mal said. Carlos got glasses for both of them, filling them with water and ice. He fed Dude as well before taking a seat beside Mal on the couch. She took the water gratefully, downing half the glass. She took a deep breath, leaning back and closing her eyes.

“You good?” Carlos asked, reaching out and touching her shoulder.

“Yeah,” Mal said. “Just exhausted. You’d think five years after we took down the barrier things would start to work themselves out. Instead I’m still running around and trying to placate the people and convince them that things are going to be okay, things are gonna stay normal.”

Carlos nodded, drinking his water. Mal sat up and gave Carlos an intense look.

“Have you thought about having kids?” she asked.

“Uh, not really,” Carlos said. “I guess maybe once or twice when I was with Jane… I assumed we’d have kids eventually but. Not seriously. Why?”

“I had lunch with Belle today and she told me that Ben and I should be seriously thinking about kids at this point,” Mal said, she ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t know if I even want to have a kid.”

“Have you talked to Ben about it?” Carlos asked.

“A bit,” Mal said. “It’s hard because… I knew I was marrying the king, and I knew that meant I had certain responsibilities to the kingdom… And now I’m second guessing all of it.” Mal’s expression was so concerned and conflicted, Carlos’s heart ached. He reached out and pulled her close to his side. She smiled at him gratefully. “I don’t want Ben to think I’m a flake.”

“You must know by now how Ben would stand by you through anything,” Carlos said. “I’m sure he’d find a way to work around it if you said you truly didn’t want a kid. He’s got other relatives who could take the throne after him if you didn’t have an heir.”

Mal shook her head. “Ben wants kids, though.”

“Oh,” Carlos said.

“Yeah,” Mal sighed, leaning against Carlos. “It’s so stupid, we didn’t talk about any of this stuff before we got married since we got married at eighteen like idiots.”

“You’re not idiots,” Carlos said. “You were nineteen.”

Mal snorted. “Do you think Evie’s gonna start having kids soon?”

“Probably,” Carlos said. “After they’re in the new castle… I know she and Doug both want to start a family.”

“They’ll be good parents,” Mal said, sighing.

“You think you won’t be?”

Mal worried at her bottom lip. “I don’t want to raise a kid with the same pressures I had to grow up with…”

“This isn’t the isle,” Carlos said.

“But they’d be the prince or princess of Auradon, C,” Mal sighed. “They’d have to deal with all the expectations and pressures and… I don’t know. I think it’s too much. I wouldn’t know how to help them.”

“Ben would be there,” Carlos said.

“Yeah… He’d be a great dad,” Mal said. “I just wish we could run away into the wilderness and start a family there, away from everyone else.”

“A perfectly controlled environment,” Carlos laughed and Mal glared at him. “No, no, I get it. If I had a kid… I don’t even know where I’d start with raising them properly. Much less royalty.”

“My mom always wanted me to be something specific, and then Auradon wanted me to be something else… I just want to be me,” Mal said. “And I want to let any kids I may or may not have just be themselves, too.”

Carlos squeezed Mal before pulling away. “I gotta make dinner, you want some? I just have like… Frozen spring rolls and microwave rice but. It’s not bad.”

“Sounds like food to me,” Mal said, following Carlos as he moved to the kitchen area again. He threw the food into the microwave, Mal pulling herself up onto the counter, waving her feet for Dude to bark at. “You’re a good pet parent,” she said. “You’ll be a good dad if you decide to have kids.” She paused. “Jay, too. You guys would be good dads.”

Carlos shook his head. “We’re not even using the ‘boyfriends’ label, I’m not thinking about having kids with him, yet.”

“You’re not?” Mal said, surprised. “I mean—the boyfriends thing, not the kids thing. Obviously.”

“We’re taking it slow,” Carlos said. “I don’t know if I’m ready to have a boyfriend so close to breaking up with Jane… So we’re just dating. Nothing serious.”

“Jay’s okay with that?” Mal asked.

Carlos shrugged. “I think so, I know that he’s wanted this for so long… But I don’t want us to rush it and ruin it just because of that.”

“You’ve wanted it for a long time, too,” Mal said. Carlos just frowned and Mal heaved a sigh, looking away. “Okay, okay. Ben said—he told me to apologize. I shouldn’t have theorized about your sexuality with our friends behind your back.”

“You shouldn’t have,” Carlos said. “And starting with ‘Ben told me to’ doesn’t make for a very sincere apology.”

Mal huffed. “I just—I wasn’t wrong! You said so yourself, I pushed you to make the right choice.”

“It doesn’t make what you did right,” Carlos said. “You could’ve talked to me before that, instead of sneaking around and telling Jay and Ben and whoever else that I was gay.” His cheeks were heating up, a suppressed feeling welling up in his chest. He respected Mal, he didn’t like to think she could do wrong. Even when she did, again and again, he never knew how to deal with it. While Jay always trusted in her, and Evie was never afraid to tell her she was wrong, Carlos just. Tried to ignore it when she was wrong. Erase the times she’d hurt him. They were coming back to him in a flurry, though. “You treated me like crap when Jay left, and you didn’t even tell me why. I was hurt and I missed him and you wouldn’t even talk to me even though we were both hurting for the same reason.”

Mal scoffed, looking away.

“My relationship with Jay has nothing to do with you,” Carlos said. “Maybe if I had told him I had feelings for him then he would’ve stayed, but I wasn’t ready for that. That’s not my fault. He did what was best for him, I did what was best for me.”

“You were a mess that year,” Mal said.

“Sometimes that’s the best you can do, Mal,” Carlos said. The microwave beeped, he pulled out the food and separated it onto two plates, handing Mal her’s. “I wanted to be with Jane.”

“Why?” Mal said, taking the food with a frown.

“Because I loved her,” Carlos said, simply. “Not in the way I needed to, but I did love her. Even if I had to hide part of me, I wanted to do it for her.”

“Didn’t you tell me that was the exact wrong way of thinking?” Mal asked. She accepted a fork from him, and began eating.

“I’ve always been bad at taking my own advice,” Carlos said with a shrug, stabbing at his own food before taking a bite. They were silent for a while, Carlos felt awkward. He’d never argued with Mal like that before, even when she’d blamed him for Jay leaving he’d let her say her snide comments and ignore them. He didn’t see her much during Jay’s gap year anyway.

“Did you really quit smoking?” Mal asked suddenly.

“Oh, yeah,” Carlos said. “It sucks. I want a cigarette pretty much every day. Especially today, actually.”

Mal nodded. “That’s good, though. That you’ve stopped.”

“I don’t really have much of a choice, I don’t have any more.” Mal nodded.

They watched some reality TV, laughing at the over the top characters. Mal hadn’t really apologized, and Carlos hadn’t forgiven her. It felt like something from the isle. He remembered a time, back in the sixth grade, when they’d been working a project together. When he’d got the scar on his leg after convincing him to go into Cruella’s fur closet. The wound was bleeding and he was freaking out and it had hurt so fucking bad. Mal had bandaged it up haphazardly with some fabric she’d found in another room, which Carlos had gotten in trouble for using.

They’d sat in front of the tv after that, too. Watching Auradon’s prince of the week smile and talk to the camera about how it was to be handsome and perfect. Mal had laughed at them, and Carlos had tried to join in, even though his calf was still throbbing and the blood was coming through the bandage.

Mal hadn’t apologized then, and Carlos hadn’t really forgiven her.

/

Training camp started on a monday. The team was lodging together in a small complex near the Summerlands’ team field, and Jay wished he didn’t feel nervous about the whole situation but. He’d been the new guy from the isle twice at that point and he wasn’t looking forward to having to prove himself again to people who looked at him and only saw his father’s actions. After a long good-bye from Evie early that morning he’d driven out to the Summerlands on his own, listening to loud music in the hopes of chasing his nerves away.

The complex looked like a motel, rustic and covered in dark wood panels, and the team was actually pretty cool. Most of the guys knew each other, it was just Jay and a big guy from somewhere about Arendelle who were newly drafted onto the team. When they were waiting outside the complex together things didn’t feel awkward at all, Jay found himself excited about it. The coach and assistant coach arrived and Jay beamed when he welcomed him and the other guy to the team. They were given a schedule for the training camp, dates for the pre-season games, and a speech about what was expected of them. He’d singled Jay out a bit, mentioning how he’d graduated MVP of SFU’s tourney team, and how “things might be turning around for the team this year!” which had Jay feeling a bit put on the spot but he just put on a confident grin and nodded along.

He was rooming with the other new guy, Noel, who kept looking at Jay with big eyes. Not in a rude way, Jay didn’t think.

“You good?” Jay asked as he unpacked his bags.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Just—I never thought I’d get drafted alongside SFU’s MVP.”

Jay laughed, shaking his head. “Well here you are.”

“Pretty crazy Sherwood Forest didn’t snatch you up… They really didn’t even give you an offer?” Noel was sitting on his bed, still giving Jay that look that Jay was beginning to realize was awe.

Jay shook his head. “Nope, honestly I don’t know if I would’ve really wanted to play for them, anyway.”

Noel gave Jay an incredulous look. “If I was good enough to even get onto SFU’s team I’d do anything to get onto Sherwood. The Arrows won the tourney bowl seven out of the last eight years.”

“I mean, sure, they’re the team to beat but… I’m more interested in being close to my family, now,” Jay said. “And maybe I missed being on the underdog team. I turned the Auradon Prep Knights around, didn’t I?”

Noel shook his head. “You’re crazy, but maybe you’re right.”

The team had lunch before heading out to the field. They weighed in, and each teammate ran a timed mile. There they had a discussion on some of the more technical aspects of the team, the coach talking a lot to Jay and Noel as the newcomers. It was pretty typical for a first training meet of the year, the guys all got along and welcomed Jay and Noel into the team warmly enough. The team seemed to be a mix of guys who loved tourney but just weren’t good enough to get on a better team, and some guys who didn’t seem to care much about tourney at all, but were just good enough to get onto this team and hey—it was a job. Noel was definitely the former, wide eyes sparkling all through the day.

The team went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant that evening. Jay’s new teammates entertained him and Noel with stories from the past few years of the team’s history. Apparently an old teammate had been stolen by Camelot that year, so they were having fun ribbing on him. Jay was embarrassed to admit he didn’t know much about the Summerland’s team, so this was news to him. He usually paid more attention to the teams who actually won games.

“Bet you thought you had an easy ride right to the top, huh?” the team’s oldest member, Barry, said when Jay said this, frowning.

“Not really, I’m from the isle,” Jay laughed. The mood in the air was light, he didn’t feel any tension coming off of the older guy even if he was narrowing his eyes at Jay. “Just, everyone knows going against the Summerlands is basically a win. Unless it was Northern Wei or Agrabah playing, I don’t think I’ve seen any of your games.”

Noel looked kind of shocked at Jay’s bluntness, but Barry laughed. “We’ve beat Agrabah, they’re not that good either.”

“Don’t be too hard on him,” another teammate, Rian, said around a mouthful of food. “He gave up Northern Wei for us.”

“Yeah, you’re here to turn things around for us, right?” Barry said, and Jay grinned.

“Wait, you got an offer for Northern Wei?” Jay’s smallest teammate said. A little guy named Marshall. “That must’ve been a better offer.”

“Too far away,” Jay said, shrugging. “I wanted to stay close to Auradon City, be near family.”

Marshall nodded, considering. “I guess… Seems weird to stake your career on something like that, though… Coach seems to talk like you’re hot shit.”

Jay laughed, surprised. “Honestly, I’m just glad to have a career right now, I thought I’d blown it earlier this summer.”

“Mm,” Noel said. “The first SFU MVP to not get drafted onto the Arrows… Ever, I think.”

“I love making history,” Jay said.

“Why didn’t they at least give you an offer?” Marshall asked.

“I don’t know,” Jay said. “They’re weird out there, honestly. I don’t know if it’s because I petitioned for my dad to get pardoned or just the gay thing.”

“Well, better for us,” Rian said, raising his glass in a mock toast that made Jay laugh.

When they returned to the complex the sun was setting. The coach told them to rest up, and that things would be getting serious the next morning. The team sounded off a “yes, coach!” before heading back to their rooms.

When Jay got back into his room the first thing he did was ask if it was okay if he used the shower first. Noel said that was fine, and he had to call his girlfriend. Jay washed up and brushed his teeth, checking his reflection in the mirror. He didn’t look any different after his first day as an official pro tourney player. He’d managed to get his haircut before he left, though, a bit shorter than last time, brushing his shoulders but not that far past them. Dizzy, who he’d gotten to do it again on a sunny afternoon in Evie’s lawn. Carlos hadn’t seen it yet, he hadn’t managed to come back down to Auradon City that weekend, apparently there was a bunch of clerical work that he’d had to go into the office and do over the weekend.

When Jay left the bathroom, dressed in maroon shorts and an old graphic tee shirt, he grabbed his jacket from the back of the door. Noel gave him a look from where he sat on his bed.

“Uh, one second,” he said into his phone, before pulling it from his face. “Where are you going?”

“My not-quite-boyfriend is a fifteen minute drive away and I haven’t seen him in a week,” Jay said, as he pulled on his shoes. “I’m gonna go see him.”

“You’re like… Sneaking out?” Noel said, skeptical. “On the first night on training?”

“We’re not training right now,” Jay said.

“For your ‘not-quite-boyfriend’?” Noel added, ignoring his statement.

“It’s why I chose to play for Summerlands,” Jay said with a laugh, and Noel let out a disbelieving laugh as well. “I’ll see you in the morning, don’t wait up!”

And Jay left, out to the parking lot. It had started raining, and the air was cool. Jay stared up at the sky, a purple-blue color, filled with clouds. Jay got distracted, standing there, rain bouncing off the leather of his jacket. He ran a hand through his hair. He liked the rain, he always had. He used to go outside just because it was raining on the isle, when he was a kid. His dad would just shake his head at him, telling him if he wanted a cold that was his own decision but he wasn’t getting any time off helping the shop. Carlos hated the rain, he’d said it used to blow in through the broken window of his room, making everything damp, and his mother would throw a fit when he wigs would be wet even though it wasn’t his fault.

Jay drove to Carlos’s house, showing up unannounced. Carlos was outside, which he hadn’t been expecting. Standing huddled against the house with Dude on his leash. He looked up in surprise when he saw Jay pull up. Jay grinned at him as he got out of the car.

“Jay?” Carlos said, with a disbelieving laugh.

“Hey,” Jay said. Carlos grinned at him, shaking his head.

“Sneaking out on your first night? Horrible,” he said as Jay approached him.

“You didn’t come down this weekend,” Jay said, grinning. 

Carlos chuckled as Jay stepped up to him, he reached out to touch Jay’s hair and then frowned. “You’re soaking, what happened?” A lookout panic flashed over Carlos’s face as he touched Jay’s cheek, searching his face.

“What? Nothing, I just got distracted by the rain,” Jay said, putting a hand over Carlos’s. “It’s actually been a pretty good day—A great one, now.”

Carlos inspected his face a bit more, as Dude began to sniff at Jay’s shoes and Jay just grinned. “Okay,” Carlos said, deciding Jay passed his inspection. “Let’s go inside before you catch a cold.”

Jay followed Carlos inside where he promptly stripped Jay of his jacket and made him take his shirt off. Jay snorted. “Forward,” he teased.

“Shut up, I’ll get you a dry shirt,” Carlos said, heading to the back room. Jay shook his head.

“My shirt’s not even that wet!” he called after him, pulling off his shoes.

“I’m not having you get sick right at the start of your tourney career,” Carlos said, returning to the room with an worn yellow Auradon Prep crewneck for Jay, which he accepted. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I missed you, duh,” Jay said, pulling the sweatshirt over his head. “I’m staying only, like, fifteen minutes away. I couldn’t resist.” He reached out and pulled Carlos close to him by the waist. Carlos shook his head. “Are you mad?”

“No,” Carlos said, a smile creeping onto his face. “I missed you, too, honestly.” He bit his lip in consideration for a moment before surging up on his tip toes to kiss Jay. Jay smiled into it, leaning into it with a hum.

“How was your first day?” Carlos asked when he pulled away, leading Jay to the couch.

“It was good, the guys on the team are pretty cool,” Jay said, sitting down. Carlos sat with his legs crossed up on the couch, Dude jumping up into his lap. “Much smoother transition onto the team than at SFU.”

Carlos nodded. “Rough time there, right?”

“Yeah,” Jay said, petting Dude. “These guys mostly just seemed interested in why I chose Summerlands, less about me being gay or my dad.”

“That’s good,” Carlos said. “What did you say was your reason?”

“I think I gave like four different answers,” Jay laughed. “But I told my roommate the truth.”

“Which is?” Carlos said.

“You already know,” Jay said. “You were here, I wanted to be near you.”

Carlos nodded slowly. “I’ll be back in Auradon City in a couple weeks, though.”

“Well, then I’ll just focus on my other reasons,” Jay said. “The team is nice, it’ll be a new challenge, I’m not disappointed I chose them. I wouldn’t have been happy on Northern Wei, their training camp actually started last week—I’m not ready to be that far away from my dad, anyway.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Carlos said. He moved Dude beside him and scooted closer to Jay. “Did you get a schedule or anything?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty packed,” Jay said, putting an arm around Carlos and pulling him in even closer, leaning against Jay. “You’ll probably see me every spare moment I have, though.”

Carlos chuckled, curling into Jay’s side. Jay kissed his temple, then down his jaw to his neck. Carlos hummed as Jay readjusted himself to have easier access to his throat, kissing lightly down towards his collar bone.

“Ask me about my day, idiot,” Carlos said, even though he’d threaded his fingers through Jay’s still damp hair and tilted his head to give Jay more space to kiss.

“How was your day,” Jay breathed, nipping at Carlos’s pulse.

“Good,” Carlos sighed. “Got out of work early after putting in all the extra time over the weekend.”

“Hm, that’s good,” Jay said, slipping a hand under Carlos’s shirt, causing his breath to hitch. “What did you do with your afternoon?” he murmured into Carlos’s shoulder. 

“Walked dude through the woods, read, called Jane,” Carlos said. His voice was breathy and high, glanced at him and he was looking at him with curious eyes. Jay kissed his lips, hand trailing up higher on his sides underneath his shirt. Carlos’s eyes slid closed as he kissed Jay back, fingers tightening their grip on his hair. Jay moved closer until he was practically in Carlos’s lap. Their kisses were tender, slow, and Jay could feel the tentative hesitance on Carlos’s end.

“This okay?” Jay asked against Carlos’s lips.

“Mm,” Carlos said. “We’ve talked enough, right?”

Jay pulled away, frowning.

“I mean—That’s not what I meant,” Carlos said, cheeks going pink. “I didn’t mean like talking was just to get to this, or that you thought that. It was supposed to be more like…” He looked away and Jay sighed.

“No, it’s okay,” Jay said. Carlos’s hands rested on his shoulders now. “I just want to know if you’re uncomfortable…”

Carlos nodded. “Okay, yeah, that’s. Thank you.”

Jay tentatively kissed Carlos again, and Carlos tentatively kissed him back. They worked at each other carefully, which was different. Jay was used to desperately trying to piece Carlos together when things were getting shaky, instead this felt like they were slowly building something together. Shyly giving pieces of themselves to the other through soft touches, Carlos’s fingers teasing along Jay’s jaw, Jay’s thumb rubbing lightly over Carlos’s abdomen. Jay wanted to give everything to Carlos, all at once, but he held back, kept pace with what Carlos was able to give him.

Carlos pulled away this time, looking at Jay with dark eyes that held a spark of awe in them. He kissed him again, just a light brush of lips on lips, before pulling back. Jay smiled at him.

“Let’s go out again, soon,” Carlos said. “Whenever you’re free this week.”

“Okay,” Jay said. “I’ll double check the schedule tomorrow—see what we can make work. I saw a 24 hour diner on the way here, at worst I’ll sneak out at 1AM and we can have a date there.”

Carlos laughed, shaking his head, eyes sparkling. “You’re reckless, Jay. You worked too hard to be so blasé about your tourney career.”

Jay kissed Carlos’s forehead. “I’m not blasé! I know my limits, you just have to trust me.”

“Okay,” Carlos said. “I trust you.”

Jay kissed him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i should proofread this again but my boyfriend actually read this one and he said it’s ok so!! i hope there aren’t any especially awful typos in here 😇


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just forcing myself to post this at this point. it’s a full carlos pov chapter please enjoy

Carlos got a text from Jay on wednesday reading: ‘ _hey tonight is good for a dinner date! sorry for the short notice but one guy said he wasn’t feeling well n was gonna skip team dinner so i just said i had smth to do, too_ ’ 

Carlos frowned at the text, considering. He was tired, it had been a busy day at work, he’d had to stay a little bit later than usual, which was rough after having to work through the weekend. He didn’t really feel like going out anywhere… He got an idea at that thought.

 _’I don’t feel like going out, what do you think of running to the store and cooking for us?_ ’ he texted to Jay.

Jay sent a string of exclamation points and an ‘ _that would b my absolute pleasure_.’

And that’s how Carlos found himself opening the door to the cabin to reveal a Jay with an armful of groceries and an infectious grin on his face. His hair was pulled up, and he looked a bit tired but also energized at the task before him. Carlos grabbed one of the bags of groceries from Jay as Dude barked at them.

“I got something for you, Dude, don’t even worry about it,” Jay said as he set down his bag on the kitchen counter. He dug out a little brown bag that had a dog treat in it, one of thestupid expensive organic dog cookies or something, and tossed it to the dog who ran across the room to get it. Carlos laughed.

“So what are you cooking tonight, Mr. Chef?” Carlos asked, leaning against the counter and peeking into the bag he’d set down there. He saw a bottle of something, a bag of rice, a bunch of little jars of spices.

“You’ll see,” Jay said, reaching over to Carlos’s bag and pulling out the bottle. “I got, uh, wine.”

“Wine?” Carlos said, looking at the bottle of some sort of dark red wine.

“Yeah, it seemed like something you’d have on a date,” Jay said.

“I guess?” Carlos said, skeptical but grinning. Things felt easy, he liked that. He found a couple of actual wine glasses in the cupboard, so he pulled those out and uncorked the wine bottle as Jay hunted for pots and pans which Carlos had definitely not used since he’d moved in. He mostly ate frozen foods and pizza from a spot twenty minutes away. He poured them glasses of the definitely cheap and not very good smelling wine. It was actually kind of fun, kind of like the type of date you’d see in the rom coms Carlos and Jane used to watch. He actually found himself feeling purely excited at the fact he was having such a date with Jay.

Carlos leaned against the counter sipping on his wine, which didn’t taste good, as he watched Jay cook. They talked about how their weeks were going, Carlos telling Jay how exhausted he was from working so much, Jay talking about his frustrations with the underachievers of the team. Jay hummed under his breath in the conversational lulls, and he pulled a face that made Carlos laugh when he took his first sip of wine.

“Uhg, this is disgusting,” he said.

“Do you think we’re snobs?” Carlos asked, swirling his wine. “Since we only have Mal’s fancy shit in the castle?”

“I’ve had shit wine before,” Jay said, taking another gulp of his. “Shit from the wharf that Auradonians threw out—this is worse.”

Carlos laughed. The cabin was soon filled with the smells of whatever Jay was making, filling it with warmth. Carlos recalled fantasizing about a situation like this, returning from a hard day’s work to the warm smells of Jay’s cooking. He pushed off from the counter, setting down his wine to wrap his arms around Jay’s waist from behind him, burying his face in his shoulder blades.

“It smells really good,” Carlos said.

“Of course it does,” Jay said, cheerful and Carlos laughed. He followed behind Jay in the kitchen as he moved about, until he finally declared dinner was done and asked Carlos to grab plates and bowls. Carlos helped him plate up, everything and bring it over to the coffee table in the living room area. The cabin didn’t really have a kitchen table, there were bar stools on by the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room but Jay wanted to put everything out on the coffee table. They sat on the floor, even as Dude ran around barking for another treat.

“Don’t give him anything,” Carlos said, even though they always had. “I’m finally trying to get him to stop begging every time I eat.”

“Fine, fine,” Jay said, and Dude sat down near them, practically pouting. “Oh, but look… He really wants it.”

“Jay!” Carlos scolded.

“Sorry, boy, Carlos wont let me give you anything… Take it up with him,” Jay said to Dude and Carlos scoffed at him. But it was fond and warm.

The food was as delicious as the last time Jay had cooked for him. Things felt so much better, though, Carlos couldn’t stop smiling. That time had only been about a month earlier, but he felt like he had really achieved something since then. Not just getting the job and moving to the Summerlands, but he felt like he and Jay really were in a relationship. Like he could talk to him again, he’d been so scared that they’d lost that. That they’d never be friends like they used to, but he felt closer to Jay than ever.

“Mal came over last week,” Carlos said. “I think I’m mad at her.”

“Oh?” Jay said, mouth full of rice and sauce. “Why?”

“Maybe it’s all of this,” Carlos waved between him and Jay, “or what happened with my mom, but I guess I’m just… Thinking about my relationships with people.”

“What does that have to do with Mal?” Jay asked.

Carlos shrugged. “I just think… She and I have never… Really talked. I was scared of her and then I was her friend, but still kind of scared of her, and then I just was in awe of her, when we got here. So I ignored stuff.”

“Like?” Jay said and Carlos faltered a bit. Jay looked genuinely confused, and Carlos was worried. Mal was Jay’s best friend, he’d always stood by her with unwavering loyalty. This wasn’t the sort of thing they ever talked about.

“Well for one, she spent years telling my friends I was gay behind my back while I had a girlfriend,” Carlos said and Jay grimaced, “And… When you left, it was hard. Mal kind of blamed me—Well, she fully blamed me and she wouldn’t tell me why, she just made snide comments whenever you came up, even though I missed you, too.”

“Oh, that sucks,” Jay said, genuine. “Did you guys talk about this?”

“Kind of, she told me Ben told her to apologize… But she didn’t, really,” Carlos sighed. “She thinks that because she was right, that I am gay, that you did leave because of me, that she didn’t do anything wrong.”

Jay took a bite of food, Carlos watched his thoughtful expression. He swallowed. “I guess I get that…”

“I can’t really blame her, I told her so much myself,” Carlos sighed. “When we went out on the isle, I told her she helped push me. Again, I just don’t know how to talk to her… It's different with her from the rest of you guys. Evie’s been close to me from the start, and you always put forward so much effort to be near me, but Mal… I feel like we just both came with the package. Mal told me she didn’t even realize I was going through something.”

“I mean, I didn’t either,” Jay said. “I thought you were fine, too. You fit in easily, here.”

“You and Mal fit in easily on the isle, but that didn’t mean you were okay,” Carlos said.

Jay sighed. “You’re right, you’re right… I don’t know why I feel like I have to defend her, sorry.”

“She’s _Mal_ , I get it,” Carlos said. “It’s just… She’s never apologized, not for bullying me back on the isle, not for anything. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mal, she’s family. I know she loves me, too, and cares about me in her own way… But I just want her to get it.”

“To get you,” Jay supplied, and Carlos nodded.

“That’s it,” he said. “I want to get her, too. I guess I’m tired of just… Being quiet about what hurts me. It’s kind of late, but I think I’m ready to grow out of that.”

Jay smiled at him, full of affection, and Carlos wasn’t as scared of it. He reached out and touched Jay’s hand, feeling warm and full. Jay threaded his fingers into Carlos’s, thumb rubbing against his. Carlos smiled at the sight. He wanted to hold it in his mind forever. Him and Jay, alone in this cabin, Dude sitting patiently by the table, whining only a little bit. Jay’s fingers, long and tan, decorated with a couple gold rings, tangled with Carlos’s pale, soft freckled ones.

“Thanks for listening,” Carlos said, soft.

“You can always count on me, C,” Jay said.

Carlos looked up to Jay’s eyes, which were smiling at him. There was some sauce on Jay’s lip, and cliche as it was, Carlos reached out and wiped a finger across Jay’s lip, bringing it back to his own mouth. Jay’s eyes sparkled when he laughed, shoulders shaking as Carlos grinned at him.

He loved him.

“You can be my boyfriend,” Carlos decided, and Jay laughed harder.

“Like I have your permission?” Jay said.

“Yeah,” Carlos said plainly, and Jay leaned over the table to kiss him.

“Well… I accept,” he said when he pulled away. “I’ll be your boyfriend.”

“That sounds perfect,” Carlos said, squeezing his hand. Jay squeezed back and Carlos’s heart felt full.

-

When Carlos arrived at Evie's house that weekend, he found Evie was in the middle of something. There was a guy with a camera, following her around as she talked to him. Carlos frowned from the doorway.

“Am I interrupting something?” Carlos asked, as Snow White entered the main room of the castle as well.

“Carlos!” Evie said. “Hi, you’re always so much earlier than I expect, you really shouldn’t speed.”

“Uh huh,” Carlos said. “What’s going on?”

Snow answered, “Evie’s doing an interview for my lifestyle column to announce our Summer Ball! Has she told you about it?”

“A bit,” Carlos said. 

“We’re almost done, we’ve just got to take some pictures in the sewing room,” Evie said. Carlos nodded, he was curious so he followed them through the castle, to Evie’s sewing room. She and Snow took some pictures together, both posed and some candids of Evie showing Snow some of her latest designs for some lightweight summer gowns; wispy sketches of dresses with fabric samples of chiffon and organza in summery tones.

The sound of a kettle whistle came from the other room. “Oh! The tea, I almost forgot!” Evie said, “I’ll be right back, Snow.” She hurried out of the room and Snow chuckled after her.

“So lively!” she said, before turning her attention to Carlos. “I don’t think we’ve ever been formally introduced,” she said. “But I’m Snow White, as you probably know. Sophie’s told me a lot about you, all great things.”

“That’s good,” Carlos said, a little awkward. “Sophie always has nice things to say about you, and Evie as well.” Snow beamed.

“She’s a great kid, I’m really glad we’ve been able to work together,” Snow said, diplomatic. She was dressed professionally, a linen yellow pantsuit with a royal blue blouse, her hair neatly kept back with a red headband. Carlos really didn’t know much about her, other than that Evie’s mom had tried to kill her and that she was Sophie’s mother. Jay had mentioned her once or twice, he saw her a lot at the hospital apparently.

“Why are you working together?” Carlos asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.

Snow hummed, considering as she looked through the designs on Evie’s desk again. “I think it probably has a bit to do with your friend, Jay, and Jafar. I know how horrible your parents are—first hand experience, unfortunately—but when I went to cover that story I just saw a son so consumed with concern for his sick father, and a sick old man who hardly seemed a threat... The more I got to know them, there wasn’t any ulterior motives underneath that. And I just thought of all the hateful things people were writing about them, it just didn’t seem right.” Snow looked at Carlos then. “If it’s been five years and no one has tried to take over Auradon or whatever we’ve all been so afraid of, then maybe there isn’t anything to be afraid of. Yet people seem so determined to shun you kids and your parents,ignoring why the barrier was taken down in the first place.” Snow shook her head. “I guess, I just think that our goals should’ve been rehabilitation, and it feels like for better or for worse that has happened, to an extent. So as scary as it is, we should just move on.

“That’s why I want to do this. I feel like if I get up there and say ‘Evil Queen, I forgive you,’ then what can the people of Auradon say? I of all people should be able to hold a grudge here.” Snow laughed, light and princess-y. Carlos was surprised. He frowned.

“How can you do that? Forgive her?” he said. “She literally killed you.”

Snow shrugged, smiling. “I’m alive now, right?” Carlos gave her an incredulous look. “Holding this grudge hasn’t given me any peace. I regret not going to Doug’s wedding, just because she was there. I ended up hurting him. I pushed the thought of that woman from my mind for a long time, and in doing that I was complacent in what you kids had to go through. We all told ourselves that it was fine that the villains were on that island, that you guys were, because of the crimes your parents had committed. But it wasn’t right to do that, it wasn’t right to bring them back from the dead just to torture them when we’d already won our battles with them.” Snow sighed. “I guess, it’s more than just me forgiving her… I hope she can forgive me, too.”

Carlos was quiet, he didn’t really know what to say to that. It seemed like everyone around him had it all figured out.

“Now, I don’t know how it’s actually going to go when I see her, of course,” Snow laughed. “Maybe I’ll chicken out and this will all be a disaster.”

Carlos noticed her hands were shaking a bit. He still didn’t say anything, unsure of what would be helpful. She picked up an envelope of designs, pulling one out. She looked surprised.

“I didn’t know you designed as well?” She looked over at him.

“I don’t,” Carlos said, stepping closer to her.

“These are signed ‘de Vil’,” she said, handing him a sketch from the envelope.

Carlos froze at the sight of them. “They’re my mother’s.” He recognized her style, angular, harsh, nothing like Evie’s. It was an outfit for him, a weird asymmetrical trench coat in black and white. He frowned at it.

“There’s more,” Snow said, handing Carlos the stack of papers. Some of them had little post-it notes on them, with quick notes scrawled out in Evie’s handwriting. Carlos recalled being a child, when he’d sit quietly in his mother’s office while she sketched designs. Ranting about her once-powerful fashion (and criminal) empire as she drew out clothes for him or for her.

“Carlos,” Evie’s voice pulled Carlos from his memory. He looked over and saw her standing in the doorway, holding a tray full of tea.

“What are these?” Carlos asked.

Evie set down the tea tray, walking over to him. “Your mom sent them… I didn’t know what to do with them.”

Carlos looked at them again. “Throw them out.” He tossed the stack of designs onto the table, before leaving the room in a rush. His ears were ringing, his heart racing.

Evie’s hand was on his wrist, stopping him. He looked at her. Snow was still in the room behind her, giving them a sympathetic look.

“I think we should talk about this,” Evie said. “About your mom.”

“I don’t want to,” Carlos pulled away, frowning. “You never get it.”

“Carlos,” Evie said, and she looked frustrated. Like she was repeating something and Carlos just wouldn’t listen—But he _was_ listening. “I do get it, my mom was a menace, too, just ask Snow.”

“At least she loves you, Evie,” Carlos said, feeling a bit like Evie wasn’t listening to him. “My mom doesn’t care about me—She didn’t send you those because she did.”

“I know that!” Evie said. “It’s not about her! It’s about you. I could care less about her, she’s awful, I know that. I hate her more than you do, trust me Carlos, ever since I saw the horrible conditions she kept you in. Ever since I saw the way she talked to you, don’t think I’d ever do anything for her sake.”

Carlos frowned at her, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say, he felt out of his depth under Evie’s stern gaze.

“I didn’t save the designs for her, I saved them for you,” Evie said. “Maybe that wasn’t the right move but I don’t know what to do for you, C, because you don’t tell me what you need. But I—I know you don’t hate her.”

Carlos pulled his wrist from Evie’s hand and she let him, even as her gaze was pleading and she stepped closer to him.

“My mom hurt me, too,” she said. “And even though it didn’t make sense I still loved her, even when it was hard and I kind of hated her, too. I’m lucky, I know, that she wanted to change, but even if she hadn’t… I would want to forgive her.”

Carlos still had no words, he just stared at her. Evie nodded.

“So don’t say I don’t get it, just because things look different. We both lived there, we both have villains for parents, we both know what it’s like to want your mom to just be your mom but it’s like she doesn’t know how and doesn’t care to learn,” Evie said. “I just want help you, it’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

A pause. Evie was being genuine, Carlos knew. She wanted to help, her eyes begged him to just talk to her, to tell her what he needed. 

“Okay,” Carlos said.

“Okay?” Evie said, head cocking to the side. Her eyes were shining, Carlos noted. He felt guilt and frustration welling up in his chest.

“I don’t know what I need,” he said, his voice small. Evie nodded, biting her lip. “I’m… Not feeling well, is it okay if I just go to my room?” He felt overwhelmed.

Evie sighed. “Yeah, of course,” she said. She reached out and touched his cheek, soft. “I’ll come by in a bit when we’re done?”

“Okay,” Carlos said, leaning into her touch automatically before turning and leaving. He heard Snow approach Evie and say something softly to her.

Dude curled up by his side when he sat on his bed in his room. He pet him. The dog looked up at him with soft eyes and Carlos managed a small smile for him. Dude just sidled up closer to him and Carlos sighed.

“I know, Dude,” he said. “I’m a mess and Evie’s probably right… You’ve never met my mother though, you don’t know how she is. She’s worse than the stories.”

Dude whined and Carlos laid back on his bed, staring at the ceiling, flicking his fingers absentmindedly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m extremely vague abt what jay is cooking bc i’m lazy but when my boyfriend read this he said he’s making tofu curry.


	5. Chapter 5

The Thursday of their second week of training, the whole team went out for drinks in the evening. They’d been working themselves hard and everyone seemed excited to have a moment off to just relax and blow off some steam. The coach was really pushing them, he genuinely seemed hopeful that Jay was going to turn the team around. Everyone did. The energy was good, Barry told Jay that he’d never seen some of the guys put so much into the game. They had their first pre-season game in only a few weeks, against the team from Charmington, and everyone seemed pretty pumped over it. Jay most of all was ready to lead the team to victory there. Confident in his ability to.

At the bar, they were talking about why they got into tourney. Noel was going off about how his older brothers had played in high school, and he’d always just been so enamored by the team atmosphere, and the way everyone worked together to achieve something. He used to love going to his brothers’ games when he was a kid, even though none of his them had gone pro, and he’d been told plenty of times he wasn’t good enough to either—But he just loved the game.

“I get that,” Jay said, sipping on his beer. Noel beamed at him. “And you’re not bad, I can see why the coach wanted you on the team, you’re fast, you just need to start thinking faster on the field.”

“Your reaction time stinks, basically,” Barry said from the other side of the table. The team was taking up the largest booth at the bar, packed into it, and the mood was light, everyone at least a couple drinks in. Noel shot him a lighthearted glare over his cup.

“What got you into the game?” Marshall, who sat on the other side of Jay, asked him.

“When we got here, the headmistress at our school kind of forced me and Carlos to try out for the team. She thought it would help us with our aggression or something,” Jay said with a grin. “Honestly, it was the first thing here in Auradon that I actually liked and was good at. Even when we were still trying to, like, help our parents take of Auradon, I kind of just wanted to play.”

Marshall snorted, taking a long swig of his drink.

“Carlos is your boyfriend, isn’t he?” Noel said, and Jayfelt a jolt of surprise at the question, caught off guard. “I mean—I’ve just heard you talk on the phone with him.” He paused. “I wasn’t eavesdropping, I just couldn’t help but hear you say his name.” His cheeks were going pink.

Jay laughed awkwardly. “Yeah, uh, yeah. He is.” It felt surreal to say that, that Carlos was his boyfriend, that Carlos wanted to be his boyfriend and so. He was. “We both played tourney in high school, he was actually kind of good, but he hated it. I basically had to force him to join his senior year.”

“Why?” Noel asked.

“Oh, he would’ve rather spent all day in the library or working on his engineering or bio labs… But, I guess I just liked having him around,” Jay shrugged, face growing hot. He didn’t really want to confess that he’d been pining over the same guy for the last decade.

“Aww, that’s sweet that he joined just for you,” Marshall said, more than a few drinks in and almost giggling. “Have you guys been together since high school?”

“No, we actually only just made it official last week,” Jay said, laughing. “We’ve just always been close.”

“Hey, he lives nearby, doesn’t he?” Noel said, suddenly. “Why don’t you invite him out?”

“What—Right now?” Jay said.

“Yeah!” Marshall said. 

“This isn’t really his scene,” Jay said, laughing, but some of the other guys joined in insisting Jay call Carlos and invite him to the bar. It almost felt like a night with a bunch of VKs on the isle, a bit of heckling and lot of peer pressure. Jay grinned and shook his head when he finally called Carlos.

“Hello?” Carlos said when he picked up, and Jay felt himself smile wider at the sound of Carlos’s voice.

“Come out,” Jay said. “I’m at a bar with the team and they want to meet you, hear all of our old high school tourney stories from your point of view.”

“Are you serious right now?” Carlos said.

“Extremely, I’ll text you the address,” Jay said. Carlos groaned and Jay laughed. “Please! I miss you.”

“Fine, fine,” Carlos said. “Not for long, though. It’s a work night—Why are you guys even out?”

“We’ve been working hard,” Jay said. He could practically hear Carlos rolling his eyes then. “Just hurry up, okay!”

“You’re kind of insufferable, you know that, right?” Carlos said before hanging up.

“He’s coming,” Jay said, and some of the guys almost cheered which made him laugh, again. It was a good night, made even better by the promise of seeing Carlos.

Carlos showed up not much longer after Jay texted him the address. Jay waved him over when he spotted him at the entrance of the bar. Carlos looked nervous, fidgeting with the black and red fingerless gloves he wore. He smiled when he saw Jay, though. Marshall got up to let Jay out to go meet him.

“Thanks for coming,” Jay said, leaning into Carlos and giving him a quick kiss. “Do you want a drink?”

“Sure,” Carlos said. “Just a cider, if they have it?” Jay nodded, and signaled to the team that he’d just be a second, walking with Carlos to the bar. He kept his hand on the small of Carlos’s back, a not unfamiliar gesture. Carlos leaned into his space as Jay ordered his drink for him, and he felt so completely comfortable and happy in the moment.

“The team’s cool, right?” Carlos asked in a whisper as they walked back to the table.

“Oh yeah, completely,” Jay said, genuine. At the table he cleared his throat dramatically, causing Barry to laugh. “Everyone—This is Carlos, my boyfriend,” which still made Jay’s heart swell to say. “As I was saying earlier, we played tourney together at Auradon Prep. Couldn’t have turned that team around without him.” Jay introduced each of his teammates, then, and Carlos nodded at each of them with the usual guarded expression he had when he met new people. He’d never grown out of it, and Jay actually thought it was kind of endearing.

There was only really space for one more person at the booth, and Carlos didn’t even seem to think about it before he just sat across Jay’s lap after he sat down, setting his drink next to Jay’s after taking a sip. “This okay?” he asked Jay, nonchalant.

“Yeah,” Jay said with a little laugh, putting an arm around Carlos’s waist and reaching for his drink with the other. 

Marshall asked Carlos what he did for a living, and Carlos told him about his internship nearby. Jay leaned his head on Carlos’s shoulder as they talked.

“Jay told us you didn’t like playing tourney,” Noel said, leaning across Marshall. The music in the bar had been cranked up a bit, a group of people near the bar creating their own little dance floor.

Carlos shrugged. “I’m not really athletic,” he said. “I mean—I ended up being okay, I guess, but I wasn’t really good at it . It seemed like a waste of my time and effort. I only played for Jay’s sake.” Carlos rolled his eyes. “Even though he almost killed me the first time we ever played.”

Marshall laughed. “What?”

“Oh come on, I didn’t almost kill you,” Jay pinched Carlos’s side and Carlos squeaked, jumping up. He slapped Jay’s shoulder.

“You did! You were like a madman at tryouts, everyone was scared of you,” Carlos said. “I don’t understand why they even let you on the team.”

“What did Coach say again?” Jay grinned. “I had ‘raw talent’?”

“You’re lucky they didn’t send you back to the isle right then,” Carlos said.

“We’re all lucky for that,” Noel chimed in.

When Carlos excused himself to the restroom later, Marshall leaned over to Jay, shoulder pressing heavily against his. “He’s cute—I’m not into guys, obviously—“

“Obviously,” Jay snorted, rolling his eyes.

“Shut up,” Marshall said, shoving Jay’s shoulder. “You guys just look good together, happy. People used to say the craziest things about you isle kids—My dad used to go on these rants—anyway, you used to scare me a bit. But you’re cool. Both of you.”

“I think you’re drunk,” Jay laughed, shaking his head.

“My sister used to go to school with him,” Rian said from across the table, pointing after Carlos as he changed the subject. “At ACU.”

“Really?” Jay said.

“Yeah, she had a crush on him or something—Didn’t know he was gay, I thought he was dating some fairy?”

Marshall perked up at that comment. “Don’t say anything,” Jay warned, elbowing him. Marshall pouted and Jag turned back to Rian to continue, “yeah, he’d been with Jane, the daughter of the Fairy Godmother since high school.” Jay felt awkward. “Don’t talk about this when he gets back, though, it’s uh.” Jay didn’t want to mention that they’d only broken up less than two months earlier. “It’s not something he likes to talk about.”

“Or something you don’t like to talk about?” Rian said.

“Yeah, something like that,” Jay said, looking away and feeling caught.

Carlos returned and the night continued without incident. Carlos and Jay talked more about playing tourney in high school, some of the others chimed in high school stories of their own and soon it was late enough that the team started to talk about going home.

Jay walked with Carlos out to his car, wanting to sneak in another kiss before he left. The second they were out of sight of the rest of the team he pressed against Carlos, who let out a breathless laugh, kissing him deep, his hand finding its way into his hair.

“Come over again soon?” Carlos said, pulling back and leaning back against his car.

“Yeah,” Jay said, thumb rubbing against Carlos’s cheek.

Jay stepped away and Carlos turned to get into his car before hesitating. He looked over his shoulder.

“Did Evie tell you about the designs my mom sent her?” he asked.

“She showed you?” Jay said, surprised, and Carlos seemed to deflate a bit. “I—I told her to get rid of them.”

“That’s what I told her when I saw them, too,” Carlos said, looking away. “Then she talked to me a bit, and… I don’t know.”

Jay nodded. He felt a bit out of his depth over the whole thing, too. Like maybe Carlos was right, he didn’t get it, not after what Evie had told him about her experience with her own mom… Jay didn’t have anything like that with his dad. “Evie’s smart, you should listen to her.”

“Yeah,” Carlos sighed.

“You should think about what you want, too,” Jay said. “You know what’s best for you just… Really think about it. I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”

Carlos nodded, glancing back at Jay. “Thanks, Jay.”

“Just… I’m here, if you need to talk to me. I know I might not… Get it, all the time. But I care about you.”

Carlos agreed and gave him one last quick kiss before leaving, while one of Jay’s teammates who had been a designated driver for the night was yelling at him to come over so they could leave. Jay stood and waved as Carlos drove away until he couldn’t see his car anymore.

/

‘ _VK (+DATES) HANG THIS WEEKEND enchanted lake no skipping out for work or tourney or band recordings or making dresses or ANYTHING!!!!_ ’

Carlos frowned at the demanding text from Mal, sitting at the front desk of the vet clinic. His phone pinged with another text in the group text.

‘ _mal this is my career i cant just skip out on training bc u say so_ ,’ was next to Jay’s name. There was another ping before even Carlos could reply.

‘ _I’d have to reschedule two appointments… Ever since Snow announced the Summer Ball I’ve been booked up!_ ’ from Evie.

Carlos set his phone down and went to the back where Sophie was looking through some files, a bird on her shoulder.

“Hey, Soph,” Carlos said, and she looked over her shoulder at him. “Are you going to need any help this weekend?”

“I shouldn’t,” Sophie said. “Are you heading back down to Auradon City again?”

“Yeah, the queen calls,” Carlos said. “I know it’s my last weekend, so I should be available but…”

“Can’t have you standing up royalty,” Sophie said, and Carlos chuckled since she was a princess after all. “You’re fine, if something comes up I’ll handle it.”

“Thanks,” Carlos said. Sophie asked him to feed the beaver they had recuperating from an injury before he went back to the front desk and could check his phone again. There were a few texts when he returned.

‘ _i’m the QUEEN just tell your team that jay. also evie thats good! reschedule!_ ’ from Mal.

‘ _what would u do if i did this to u mal? you never make time for ME but i’m supposed to drop everything for you?_ ’ from Jay.

‘ _sarcasm doesn’t read well in text jay_ ’ Mal shot back quickly.

‘ _Jay, she has a point._ ’ from Evie, and a thumbs up emoji from Doug.

Carlos sent that he was free that weekend, and Mal replied with a bunch of confetti emojis that made him smile. He hadn’t talked to her since she’d shown up at his place unannounced. He still didn’t really know if he was mad at her for real, or if he was just gonna… Ignore it again. He felt like he had too much on his mind after making it official with Jay and everything with his mother’s designs…

When Evie had come to his room after finishing the interview and shoot they’d talked for a while. Just about growing up on the isle, with their moms. She did most of the talking and didn’t push him. She just talked about her childhood, her hardships with her own mother… How it felt to forgive her and how hard it was.

“Whenever I talked to Mal about it, she always told me that I should just do what felt best for me,” Evie had said. “And I spent a long time thinking about that—what was best for me? Not for my mother, she would have to make her own choice, I couldn’t make her be better. I had to accept that and think about myself.” She’d reached out then, tucking a lock of Carlos’s hair behind his ear, smiling at him. “Just think about you and what you want, okay?”

Carlos had been trying to do that, but thinking about his mom just sucked, he didn’t want to do it. He wanted to pretend like he’d scrubbed himself clean of her since he told her off and quit smoking. He considered talking to Mal as well, Evie had said that she’d been good for advice about her own mother, or maybe even Jay, though he’d said that he didn’t think he got it after all.

In the end Carlos decided that he’d talk to Mal about that, and everything else, when he saw her that weekend. Maybe it would supply him with some clarity.

/

 _7:34_ **mal:**  
okay so you’re coming this weekend?

 _7:40_ **jay:**  
yea yea, the coach said its ok so ill b there

 _7:42_ **mal:**  
great it’ll be great to see everyone again

 _7:42_ **mal:**  
oh yeah also uma and harry will be there!

 _7:43_ **jay:**  
……………..

 _7:45_ **jay:**  
so carlos finally agrees to be official w me and now harry hook is going to kill me cool cool cool

 _7:46_ **mal:**  
don’t be so dramatic jay omg

 _7:46_ **jay:**  
why are they going to be there anyway??

 _7:48_ **mal:**  
bc uma is my friend and harry is her date, i want to hang out w my friends and their dates its that simple.

 _7:49_ **mal:**  
why would harry kill you anyway…

 _7:51_ **jay:**  
i haven’t seen him since before gil and i broke up, on purpose, because i am p sure he’s going to kill me

 _7:55_ **mal:**  
that is so stupid jay.

 _7:55_ **mal:**  
like why would he care? didn’t gil break up with you? and aren’t you guys still friends?

 _7:56_ **jay:**  
1 bc he’s harry!!!!!! 2 yes but it was bc carlos you know this and 3 yes because gil is sweet and understanding and good and everything harry hook is NOT

 _7:57_ **mal:**  
dont let carlos see you saying that lol

 _7:57_ **jay:**  
haha ha

 _7:58_ **jay:**  
wait which part

 _8:01_ **mal:**  
the part abt gil, you know how he is

 _8:02_ **jay:**  
shut up. carlos is my boyfriend now. i’m sure he’s not gonna b weird abt gil anymore.

 _8:06_ **mal:**  
the guy asked abt dude ONCE and carlos got on his case abt it. “adopt your own” or whatever. and he’s never followed gil on instagram and always gives him the cold shoulder at group events. your boyfriend (!!! btw didn’t know you guys were official now) is mad possessive, you should probably just block gil’s number now.

 _8:05_ **jay:**  
you’re so annoying

 _8:07_ **mal:**  
just saying… anyway. no changing ur plans. you’ll be there this weekend if i need to make a new royal decree to cancel the whole tourney season to make it happen.

-

Jay called Mal.

“What is it, Jay?” She said when she answered the phone.

“I think you should get off Carlos’s back so much,” Jay said, and Mal let out a surprised laugh.

“What are you talking about?” she said.

“I mean just… About everything, you’ve always been kind of weird towards him,” Jay said. He was sitting in his room at the complex, it was after dinner and Noel was in the shower.

“I have not,” Mal said. “I care about Carlos, just like the rest of you. Don’t put me out just because I’m not all obvious and motherly like Evie.”

“He told me you guys had a fight,” Jay said.

“We didn’t,” Mal said. “I apologized for talking about him behind his back, and he got annoyed. It wasn’t a fight.”

“He told me you didn’t really apologize,” Jay said, and Mal groaned. 

“I did! I told him Ben told me to apologize, that’s the same thing,” Mal said.

“And then you told him that you were in the right, anyway, Mal.”

Mal huffed on the other line, but she didn’t say anything.

“I’m just saying, Mal. You’re too harsh towards him sometimes, I don’t get it.”

Mal made a frustrated noise. “First off, it’s not like he can’t take it. Second, he knows how much I love him. Third, we didn’t fight so this is pointless!”

“You’re not even concerned that he told me you guys fought?”

Mal paused. “What else did he say?”

“Just that he doesn’t know how to talk to you.”

“How is that my problem?”

“Come on, Mal,” Jay sighed. “I didn’t call to fight, either. I just want you to back off of him, sometimes. I know nothing seemed to bother him in high school, but you can’t still think that’s true.”

Mal was silent again.

“Wait—Mal, come on. That was obviously like… A defense mechanism. You don’t really think he wasn’t ever bothered by us bullying him, do you?”

“He’s never mentioned it, and herarely ever reacted,” Mal said. “I figure it… Wasn’t a big deal.”

“This is why you should talk to him, Mal,” Jay groaned. “Really, even when I was gone you guys never talked about this kind of shit?”

“When you were gone… I was kind of avoiding him, honestly,” Mal said. “Since it was his fault you left…” She added under her breath.

“Mal,” Jay said, stern.

“Fine, fine! I’ll talk to him,” Mal said. “I just don’t get him, sometimes! Of course I know he’s struggling, of course I care about that, but I don’t know how to help him, he’s secretive and moody and—“

“Sounds like you,” Jay said.

Mal made a sputtering noise as she tried to respond. “Whatever,” she said, finally, and Jay had to laugh.

“Just make it right, Mal,” he said.

“Mm,” Mal said, her tone growing more thoughtful. There was silence on the line for a moment, and Jay heard Noel turn the shower off. He was about to tell Mal good night when she spoke again, “you know you basically just admitted to dating essentially the guy version of me.”

Jay didn’t even know what to say, he started laughing so hard. “You really are annoying, Mal,” he said.

“I didn’t say it, you did!” Mal said, and Jay could hear her grin despite everything. And it felt right.

/

“Your boy’s gonna be on TV soon,” Sophie said on Friday, distracting Carlos from his lunch he’d been eating at the front desk. She hopped up to sit on the desk, grabbing the remote for the little TV that sat in the lobby of the office. “The Miners are having their pre-season press conference.”

“My what?” Carlos said, face heating up as he tried to process what Sophie was saying. Of course he knew about the press conference, Jay had mentioned it.

“Calm down, I just mean your friend, Jay,” Sophie said innocently.

“Oh,” Carlos said. “I mean, uh, he is my boyfriend, though.” It was official, and she was bringing Jay up, so there was no reason to beat around the bush anymore, he thought.

Sophie perked up. “Official official?” she said.

“Yeah,” Carlos said. “For a couple weeks now…”

“That’s awesome, kid,” Sophie said.

“Kid?” Carlos said, incredulous, and Sophie just laughed, ruffling his hair.

“Anyway, shush, I wanna see this press conference! My friend who’s super into tourney is so excited about Jay being on the team, it’s crazy,” Sophie laughed as she turned the channel to the sports network. “You’d think the team had already had a spot in the tourney bowl confirmed.”

“I don’t think Jay will have it any other way,” Carlos said. “He kind of is as good as they say.”

Sophie smiled, and someone on the TV announced they were moving to coverage of the press conference. Carlos didn’t really follow tourney, he had explicitly avoided hearing anything about it in college, he wouldn’t even go with Ben to any of ACU’s games. Their team wasn’t very good, similar to Auradon Prep’s. Everything he knew about pro tourney was just stuff he’d heard from Jay back in high school, and a few things Ben would mention when Carlos didn’t shut him down. Carlos had never even heard anything about the Summerlands’ team before Jay signed to them. He was quickly learning they didn’t have a great reputation for success.

Jay was on the TV, the camera panning to him as the coach was asked about him, a reporter calling the addition of Jay to the team “the elephant in the room.”

“Obviously,” the Coach was saying as the camera stayed on Jay’s reaction. “We’re glad to have Jay on the team, he’s a talented guy and a great influence to the team.” Jay grinned, that cocky stupid grin he wore when he was trying not to reveal his true emotions. Carlos snorted. The camera went back to the coach as another question was asked.

“Jay isn’t the only isle kid in the league, are you concerned that it’s too little too late for your newest star to make a real change to the team? Sure he’s the best on a team of regular kids, but going against a team like Camelot which drafted four isle kids this year alone—Is it really going to make a difference?”

The coach frowned, and someone else spoke to answer. “Jay’s not just an isle kid.” The camera panned quickly to one of the older looking team members, the one Carlos recognized as Barry from the bar. Jay had mentioned him a few times in conversation as well. “I remember when the first isle kid was drafted by Arendelle, a couple years ago, people said it was the end of Auradon-born tourney players, but Sherwood Forest still won the tourney bowl, and they still haven’t drafted a single isle kid to the Arrows.

“I’ve played tourney for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of kids who were just big, or fast, or strong come through thinking that was enough. They don’t last, though, because that’s not what makes a good player. Even the whole package won’t do it—It’s whether you’ve got the game in your soul, your blood. Jay is good because he has the heart for it. That’s what he’s bringing to this team, and practice is a whole different world with it, so our games will be, too.”

Jay was the focus again as he was asked what he thought of that. He was ginning, still, a lot more genuine at that point, though. “Um, yeah,” he said, a disbelieving laugh. “Um, I can’t wait to go out and play with other villain kids, I grew up with a lot of them, but I’m not threatened by them. I’ve beat enough pirates, they’re not all that great.” 

“Are you sure you’re not being too cocky?” the reporter asked and Jay laughed in surprise then, giving his teammates a disbelieving look.

“I managed to take one of the worst high school teams to the national championship, and then I graduated MVP at the most competitive, and quite frankly most bigoted, college in Auradon,” he said. “I don’t think anyone should underestimate me, much less myself.”

Carlos laughed and Sophie did, too, shaking her head. “Your boyfriend is crazy,” she said. “I can’t believe he said that.”

Carlos just grinned at her, proud of Jay. They watched the rest of the press conference, and Carlos wanted to drive right over to wherever this was being hosted and kiss Jay senseless, not that he had much sense left in him, Carlos thought. He loved him so much. Near the end of it, a reporter asked about Jay’s dad and the coach said that had nothing to do with their upcoming season, and that Jay didn’t have to answer. But Jay did answer, leaning into his mic.

“He’s feeling better, thank you for asking,” Jay said. “His doctors say he should be discharged soon enough. I just wish he could go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as i’m editing it’s really like... this is actually not half as bad as it feels while i’m writing. i’m beginning to feel excited abt this again! so i hope it’s reading well!! another vk hang coming up, giving me a bit of opportunity to pour out some headcanons in what i hope is an entertaining way so please anticipate as that is basically the concept of this whole fic series 😇


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i was gonna write a recap here but i don’t. know. it’s been a second since i updated, reread the last chapter if you’ve forgotten. they’re going to a group hang/date/thing.

Jay and Carlos drove down to Auradon together the Saturday morning of the get together at the Enchanted Lake. They were bringing some boxes of Carlos’s stuff back to Evie’s, as well, as Carlos had just a half week left at the vet clinic before his internship ended it was time to move back into Evie’s. He felt sad about it, he wished he could stay longer. Sophie had offered it, a couple extra weeks before the semester began, but Carlos had a bunch to do at school before the semester started, stuff to prepare for as the VK ambassador. Sometimes he wished he’d dropped the role after starting his graduate program, as it was so intensive at times, but he really did love helping the VKs who went to ACU. This would be the second year of freshmen who’d had their whole high school careers at Auradon Prep, which did make the education side of Carlos’s job easier since they were much more caught up, but Carlos still had his hands full with the more social/counseling part. Sometimes VKs just needed another VK to vent to, Carlos was glad to be that for the freshmen at ACU.

Jay picked Carlos up, since his SUV was bigger than Carlos’s sedan they planned to take his car down to Evie’s. It was a dewy early morning, a light fog settling low near the ground when Carlos stepped out of the cabin to see Jay learning against his car, phone in his hand. He smiled at Carlos, and Carlos grinned back. He looked good, hair loose and curly from the humidity. Dude ran out to greet Jay, jumping up on him. Jay laughed, scooping up the dog and Carlos couldn’t hold back a grin.

The drive was nice, they had the windows down and listened to music and Jay sang so loud and Carlos laughed.

Evie welcomed them with bone crushing hugs when they got to her place She then quickly put Carlos to work helping her in the kitchen putting together their picnic supplies, while shooing Jay away to help Doug load up the car with stuff. Jay shook his head, rolling his eyes as Carlos was dragged away.

“Mal told me you and Jay are _official_ official?! Like officially _boyfriends_ official!” Evie said when she’d got Carlos alone.

“Oh, yeah,” Carlos said, cheeks warming up. “We are…”

“And you told Sophie before me!” she said.

“Wait, Sophie told you? I thought Mal did?” Carlos asked.

“She did, but then Sophie mentioned it when I was talking to her this morning!” Evie said, pouting.

“I know, I know, I was going to tell you about it but… Then everything with my mom’s designs…” Carlos wrinkled his nose.

“You should’ve called me immediately!” Evie chastised and Carlos gave an incredulous laugh. She handed him a bag of oranges, instructing him to slice them.

“I’ve had a lot going on, Evie, come on…” Carlos said. “Between work and Jay and my mom and there’s this thing with Mal…” Carlos shook his head.

“Thing with Mal?” Evie said, pausing her picnic picking.

“Yeah… We kind of had a fight, but not really because I don’t even know what fighting with Mal would be like,” Carlos explained, looking down at the oranges. “It’s just… We were talking about some stuff. Like her telling everyone I was gay.” She was trying to apologize but then she just… Didn’t.” Carlos paused. “And I guess I wanted her to.”

“Sounds like Mal,” Evie said, grabbing two large bags of chips from the counter and tossing them into the picnic basket. “Just talk to her, be stern.”

“I tried that,” Carlos said. “She just dug her feet in even more.”

“Yeah… That’s Mal,” Evie said, sheepish. “Gotta love her, but she’s difficult. It’s not like you don’t know what that’s like, though.”

“Hey!” Carlos said, and Evie grinned at him.

“We love you guys, even if you have no idea how to talk about your emotions sometimes,” Evie said.

“Emotions are complicated, Evie!” Carlos said, throwing an orange slice at Evie, who just laughed.

“Listen, just talk to her. Mal isn’t completely unreasonable,” Evie said. “She’s a stubborn idiot, but she loves you, and she’ll hear you out.”

Carlos sighed. “You’re right,” he said, turning back to his job. This was why he’d become so drawn to animals, he thought. So much less complicated than human relationships.

-

They drove out to the Enchanted Lake together, Carlos and Jay heckling Doug’s music choices for fun, kind of like the old days. Carlos recalled a trip to Seaside back in school, road tripping with everyone. A moment out of an Auradon movie, but also a moment out of his life. Carlos wondered when it would start feeling real. 

When they got to the walking path that lead to the Enchanted Lake, they saw Harry and Uma ahead, crossing the rope bridge. Jay had told Carlos that the two of them were going to be there, and even though Jay had been a little dramatic about it, Carlos found himself glad to see them.

“Uma, Harry!” Evie called out, waving. The two of them stopped and Carlos heard Jay heave a sigh. “Play nice,” Evie warned over her shoulder. Jay stuck out his tongue at her, petulant, and Carlos laughed.

Uma and Harry waved back at them, waiting for the others to catch up.

“Hot out today, right?” Evie said cheerfully. “Perfect day to spend at the lake.”

Uma chuckled and shook her head. “Cheerful as always, Evie.”

Evie just grinned. “Have you been to the Enchanted Lake before?” She asked as they all walked across the bridge.

“Nope,” Uma said over her shoulder. “Mal’s always so soft about the place, though.”

Evie laughed. “Yeah, she and Ben had their first date here.”

“Them and eighty percent of our school,” Doug pointed out and Evie slapped his arm. “I’m just saying, It’s kind of corny, I don’t think Ben would’ve taken her there if it hadn’t been for the love spell.”

“Hey, I took Jane there for our first date…” Carlos said, and Doug gave him a look that said it wasn’t really helping the lake’s case. “It’s a romantic place!”

“Where’d you take Evie on you guys’ first date, then?” Uma said, while Harry laughed.

Evie cut in before he could answer— “The library.”

“Now wait, wait,” Doug said when he was given skeptical looks from almost everyone, waving his hands defensively. “Evie you liked our first date.”

Evie grinned, shrugging. “Fine, it was sweet. He invited me to the library, was super weird and nervous, bought me coffee, and then asked me if I was ‘interested in this being a date.’” 

“That sounds horrible,” Uma said, shaking her head, her shoulder length braids decorated with gold decorations bouncing.

“I was a dumb kid, we know this,” Doug said.

“You find your way out here often, Jay?” Harry said, a bit mocking but Carlos thought he seemed non-combative enough. Just… Regular Harry rudeness. Jay still seemed guarded as he responded.

“No, I only went on one date during high school, and he took me hiking,” he said, shrugging. They’d made it across the bridge by now, heading down the trail that led to the lake. “And I took Carlos bowling for our first date.”

“What about you guys’ first date?” Evie asked Harry and Uma. Harry ducked his head away, embarrassed, and Uma grinned mischievously.

“You would not believe the sap this guy is,” she said. “One night, out of nowhere, he just surprised me with this disgustingly romantic candlelit picnic on the deck of our ship, under the most beautifully clear night sky full of stars you could imagine. He was so fucking nervous it was hilarious.” She laughed but it was full of fondness as Harry scoffed and looked away, cheeks pink, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“It wasn’t that much,” he said.

“You got champagne!” Uma laughed.

Even Jay was laughing then, and Carlos was warm with the light mood amongst the group. He thought Jay had seemed kind of tense about it all, and of course he knew that him and Harry together was always a toss up. The sun was shining and even though he was sweating from the long walk from the car to the lake, Carlos felt refreshed. Like this hang out or group date or whatever was exactly what he needed, or like he was just truly in his element. In a way he maybe hadn’t really experienced before. Reality feeling real, for once.

When they approached the lake, the saw Mal laying out a picnic blanket on the stone platform near the edge of the water. Ben was standing nearby, holding a picnic basket. He noticed the group first, looking over and waving at them. 

“Hey, guys!” Ben called, and Mal looked up. She smiled wide at them.

“You’re here!” she said, as they filed over to the platform. She ran over and hugged Evie first.

“Perfect weather, right?” Evie chirped as she squeezed Mal back.

Ben and Mal greeted everyone, and when Mal hugged Carlos she pulled back and gave him a look that was somewhere between conflicted and sympathetic. “Hey, let’s talk later?” she said.

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Carlos said. She gave him a weird smile.

Uma announced that she was starving and they started off with lunch. Sandwiches, fruit; they munched on the usual Auradon picnic spread as everyone caught up, lounging on the blanket Mal had spread out. Evie talked excitedly about the Summer Ball, and how she and Doug had recently toured the castle they were hoping to buy. Doug talked about his band, and Uma, who usually seemed to barely contain her eye rolls at everything Doug said, actually seemed interested and asked a lot about the process of recording an album. Carlos hadn’t known she was so interested in music. She gave a genuine “that’s cool” and Doug beamed.

After telling everyone about how tourney was going, Jay asked how Harry’s sisters were doing, apparently Harriet was making bank running some sort of tourist thing out in Neverland with a bunch of her old crew from the isle. CJ was about to go into her last year at Auradon City University. Carlos recalled helping her line up an internship at a research company in the city, part of his job as VK Ambassador. She was a Marine Biology major, she’d told Carlos she wanted to travel and study the ocean. She was smart, and he’d hoped she’d be able to. He thought Harry seemed proud of his sisters, somewhere underneath his forced devil-may-care attitude.

“Speaking of college,” Mal said, her tone a shade bashful. Ben was beaming at her. “After a lot of soul searching and a mostly great evening at Carlos’s cabin in the woods, I’ve reassessed my priorities, and Ben and I have talked about what exactly we want for our future, so I have decided to reel back on my queenly duties, delegate some projects to other people, namely Uma, who this kingdom would’ve fallen apart without at this post, honestly.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Uma said, raising her drink, and Harry laughed.

Mal laughed, and Carlos realized how much lighter she seemed from the last time he saw her. “I’d never argue against it, or against you in general,” she said and Uma snickered. “Anyway, all this is to clear up my schedule and give me some free time to start art school in the fall.”

Evie gasped, clasping her hands together. “Oh, Mal! That’s great!”

Jay grinned and laughed. “That’s perfect, Mal,” he said.

“I just want to figure out… Me, you know?” Mal said, shrugging. Ben wrapped an arm around her and squeezed her. “I’ve been so focused on just… Everything else. I’m looking forward to just focusing on myself.”

Uma rolled her eyes, albeit good humoredly. “Because you’ve never done that before.”

“Shut up,” Mal laughed, and Carlos did too. He leaned against Jay, who sat close beside him, arm around his back and chin on Carlos’s shoulder. Conversation moved to what Uma had been up to, and Carlos felt full of warmth. It felt like how they’d all loosened up at Madame Medusa’s, like everyone was so comfortable in their element. Yet it was all different, they were in Auradon, Doug and Evie’s relationship seemed to be stronger than ever, Mal was glowing with confidence and determination in a way Carlos hadn’t seen in a long time, and Jay leaned comfortably against Carlos. His father was doing well, he’d been given a discharge date, Jay had told Carlos. They were all like new people compared to how they’d been earlier that summer. Like they’d been taken apart and put back together correctly this time.

Carlos felt different, too. Like he was actually capable of having this, this happiness and love and connection with the people around him. Like he did deserve that, somehow against all odds. He looked over at Jay and smiled at him. Something suddenly possessed him to kissed him on the temple, and Jay’s eyes seemed to sparkle when he looked up at Carlos.

“Yeah?” he said, quiet.

“Just… Feeling good,” Carlos said.

They went swimming after that. Mal claimed she was now the fastest swimmer of the group. Carlos had never seen Uma laugh so hard. He spent most of the afternoon sitting on the edge of the platform, next to Evie, splashing the others if they came too close with their threats to drag them into the water.

“My hair!” Evie insisted.

“Why’d you straighten it if you knew we were swimming!” Mal said, laughing. She was on Ben’s back, as if she couldn’t swim again, and stuck her tongue out at Evie who just kicked another wave of water at them.

Eventually Evie let Doug sit by them, his head leaning against her thigh. Carlos told her she was being too trusting as he narrowed his eyes at Doug. She pat his head and said that Doug would never, ever betray her.

But of course he did, giving her an apologetic smile as he said, “sorry, babe,” before grabbing her by the waist and pulling her into the water.

“That’s what you get for trusting him!” Carlos called after he as Evie splashed Doug furiously with water. She was laughing, though, her face red with it.

“I can’t believe you!” she said as he laughed, shielding his face with his arms. Mal whooped, swimming over and throwing her arms around Evie.

“Yay, you came in,” she said, and Evie splashed her. Carlos grinned at them as he leaned back.

“You’re next!” Mal pointed at him, and he shook his head.

“I’m good out here!” he called back. As he said that, though, he felt cold water drip onto the back of the neck, causing him to jump and almost fall into the water. Just almost, though. He glared up over his shoulder and saw Jay standing above him wringing out his hair.

Jay snorted. “I’m not gonna push you in,” he said.

“Yeah, that’s why I’m glaring at you,” Carlos said sarcastically, wiping the back of his neck as Jay grinned at him. He sat down next to him, pressing his cold, wet shoulder against Carlos’s. “You’re the worst,” Carlos said as he shoved Jay away and Jay laughed.

“And yet, you’re dating me,” he said cheerfully.

“Don’t make me second guess that choice,” Carlos said, leaning his head on Jay’s shoulder, which was already growing warm and dry in the dappled sunlight. They sat in a comfortable silence watching their friends in the water. Doug was putting Evie’s hair up in a messy bun, a look of deep concentration on his face. Harry and Ben were jumping from a large rock into the water, Mal and Uma cheering them on. Carlos let out a happy sigh.

“What’re you thinking?” Jay asked.

“It’s just wild, last month we were hanging out at a bar on the isle, this month we’re at a group date here…” Carlos shook his head, smiling. “Just… I’m happy.”

“Yeah,” Jay said, reaching up and ruffling Carlos’s hair. Carlos closed his eyes, sun-warmed and content. He wondered if his old cat was out there on the isle enjoying the sun, now that the clouds were gone. If she’d had kittens of her own. He felt like he’d lived lifetimes at this point.

Their friends got out of the water shortly after, spreading out on the platform to dry off in the sun. Evie made Jay sit by her so she could braid his hair, while Harry sat nearby and they talked. (Carlos heard Gil’s name and looked away.) Doug was nearby, showing Uma and Ben some of the stuff his band had been recording on his phone. Mal approached Carlos, sitting down beside him where he still sat at the edge of the platform. She had a towel pulled tight around her shoulders as she pulled her knees up to her chest.

“Girl talk?” she said, giving him a look.

“Sure,” Carlos said, returning her shy smile. “Let’s walk, though?” Mal nodded, and the two of them got up. Mal grabbed her tee shirt and pulled it on over her bathing suit, telling everyone they’d be back soon. Jay shot them a thumbs up.

They walked in silence for a while, Mal pulling her wet hair up into a ponytail. It was the longest he’d seen it since she’d had the blonde hair in high school, a dark purple and blue. Water dripped down her back, now. 

“Okay,” Mal said with a heavy sigh. “First off—I really am sorry for how I treated you over the whole Jay thing. That really wasn’t fair of me, he was your best friend, too, and I kind of ignored that in favor of my own agenda.”

“Yeah, it was shitty,” Carlos said, mentally resisting telling Mal that it was okay. It wasn’t. He felt at an impasse, though, unsure of what to say otherwise. Mal nodded.

“And I’m sorry about like… Bullying you back on the isle.”

“Oh, you don’t have to apologize about that,” Carlos said, feeling his cheeks warm up. That was so long ago, why even bring it up? Mal shook her head and stopped walking. Carlos followed suit.

“I’m sorry, though,” she said. “I was meaner to you than the other kids because Jay liked you and that pissed me off.”

“Wait, really?” Carlos said.

“Yeah,” Mal kicked the ground. “I’m sure you must have noticed I kind of have a complex around him.”

Carlos snorted. “Kind of?”

Mal glared at him, eyes flashing green for a second. “You do, too.”

Carlos shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.” He paused, chewing his lip, considering. “Are you upset we’re dating now?” He asked, cheeks warm.

Mal laughed, surprised, like she hasn’t even considered it. “Absolutely not, that’s in the past. Seeing him so happy, and you as well actually kind of makes me sick with relief. You guys deserve this, and especially with each other.”

Carlos ducked his head, shaking it. He felt a wave of relief.

“But yeah, I’m sorry,” Mal continued. “I shouldn’t have got so in my own head about Jay that it hurt you so much, not on the isle, and definitely not here in Auradon. We’re supposed to be better than this now.” She sighed.

Carlos stared at her before nodding slowly, smile fading. Mal looked a bit awkward, then, and he sighed. “I do forgive you, Mal. I guess I just don’t really know how to do that correctly.”

“I get that,” Mal said. Carlos thought back to what Evie had said about talking to Mal about her mom. Carlos took a deep breath.

“Um, actually, I wanted to ask your advice on something, too,” he said. They’d started walking again. “About my mom.”

Mal frowned. “What’s up?”

“Last time I saw her we got into it, and I didn’t take her cigarettes, you know? I told her off, and we yelled, and I guess I thought that would mean I was over it. Like I could move on and be better… And I feel better, in a way but…” Carlos ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t feel. Better, better.”

Mal hummed, considering.

“She sent Evie a bunch of designs for outfits for me,” Carlos said, biting his lip.

“Yikes,” Mal said, frowning.

“Yeah,” Carlos said. “I know she’s just trying to find a new way to use me…”

“But,” Mal said, looking at him.

“I still wish she wasn’t,” Carlos admitted, feeling weak. They’d made it to a stream, there were a couple of benches near the banks. Carlos felt suddenly exhausted and the two of them sat down. “I want to believe that maybe she sent them because she just wants to connect with me again.” Carlos took a deep breath. “When she used to design clothes for me… It’s the closest I have to good memories of her. And even then, if I tried to speak she’d yell at me, if I moved even a little she’d retaliate… It’s so stupid.”

It was hard to confess. It made Carlos feel childish and naive, weak and open to attack. Fragile. Stupid.

Mal looked out at the water, gazing consideringly at the bank on the other side. “I think the only really good memory I have of my mom is when she gave her toast at my wedding. And maybe when we returned to the isle, and she said she was proud of me… But. I don’t think she meant it the way I wanted her to.”

“What do you mean?” Carlos asked, genuinely surprised to hear this. He hadn’t known.

Mal chuckled under her breath. “When she said those things I thought she meant she finally saw me.” A pause. “That she saw me and was happy because I was happy, and good, and in love… But it’s not.” Mal closed her eyes, her cheeks were pink. “I felt really stupid when I realized that… She wasn’t proud of me for finding myself here in Auradon, she didn’t think she was wrong about how she’d raised me—She still didn’t see me.

“All my mother saw was that I’d achieved power—more power than she ever had, surely. She admitted she was wrong about how you had to gain it. She didn’t care that I was good because it made me feel good, she cared that I was good because it was the path that led me to this position. To being queen of Auradon and taking down the barrier.”

“I’m so sorry, Mal,” Carlos said, understanding the pain and embarrassment Mal felt. Just like how he felt every time he let himself believe he could really mean something to his mom. It hurt to think Mal had to go through that, too.

“I haven’t talked to her in a while,” Mal admitted. “Once I started to realize this, I started to distance myself from her. She wouldn’t pressure me to be evil again, but the way she talked about my position… It wasn’t good. I love her, I really do, and she probably loves me, too… But she still doesn’t know me, and I’ve given her enough chances to. I can’t just keep going around in circles with her, if she won’t actually try to see things my way…” Mal sighed and offered Carlos a sympathetic smile.

“So how do you deal with this?” Carlos asked.

“I talked to her, and I focused on the facts of the situation,” Mal said. “I told her I didn’t want her involved in my life anymore, that I loved her, and that I needed space. And I didn’t try to… Figure her out, or find clues to her real intentions. Then I didn’t see her again.”

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Sometimes,” Mal said with a laugh. “But I have so much more going for me than my shitty mom. I have Ben, I have you guys, I have Uma and all of our other friends.”

Mal looked back at him, reaching out and touching his cheek.

“You’re an incredible person, Carlos,” she said, and Carlos felt embarrassed at how warm his face was growing. “Probably the best of all of us. I remember when Chad couldn’t think of one bad thing to say about you, after spewing lies about the rest of us… You’re too good, honestly. You’re more than your stupid mom, she’s wrong for not seeing it.”

Carlos laughed, and it ended in a hiccup.

“You have so much going for you, and you’re your own person. Just Carlos,” Mal said, swiping a wayward tear on his cheek with her thumb. He rubbed his eyes and Mal grinned. “You know who you are, C, and we do, too. I love you. We all do.”

“I love you, too,” Carlos said, voice a bit shakey. “Thanks… And I really do forgive you, Mal. We’re still growing, right?”

“Yeah,” Mal said.

“I’m really proud of you for deciding to go back to school, by the way. I’m glad you’re making a choice for you,” Carlos said.

“Thanks, I’m really excited,” Mal beamed, her cheeks were still pink, and her eyes were shining. Carlos was endlessly grateful to have her in his life, the hardships and all. They were still growing, they’d seen each other at their worst, and they’d been there for all the best moments as well. She knew him, and he knew her. That was enough, he thought.

She threaded her arm through Carlos’ elbow on the walk back to the lake. They talked easily about school, Carlos teased her by calling her a “little freshman” and she laughed. He felt so much lighter, wheels still turning in his mind about his mother, but he also had a bit of confidence running through his veins.

When they returned to the platform at the lake, Carlos sat close beside Jay, his hair in two neat braids, next to Evie who’s hair was in a loose, messy braid that Jay proudly announced he’d done. Carlos chuckled.

“Good job,” he said, kissing Jay’s cheek while he grinned.

They stayed at the lake well into the evening. Evie fell asleep at one point, curled up in the sun, head resting on Doug’s lap. Jay asked if she was sleeping well and Doug explained she’d been working on a lot of projects. 

“You know how Evie is, she works herself too hard,” Doug said. Carlos nodded. “To be honest, you all do,” he wrinkled his nose. Harry snorted.

“The effects of years spent trying to appease parents who couldn’t give a shit,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it will probably be a long time until the next update again! school is hard! thank u for sticking around i hope this chapter is good to you 😇


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